Hundreds of British clinics lose online GP booking after IT company goes bankrupt

What happened

Patients in many parts of the UK are temporarily unable to contact their GP practices online: Silicon Practice, the company that ran their digital services, has gone into administration. As BBC News reports, the firm provided websites, online booking and online consultations for around 500 practices in England — just under 10% of the total. Problems have been reported in London, Gloucestershire and Norfolk, as well as in Wales.

Why the outage has been so keenly felt

The scale of the disruption is explained by the fact that online booking has become mandatory in England: since last year all practices have been required to offer it, and more than 40% of appointments are now booked this way. Doctors' leaders have warned that the outage will cause serious disruption. Patients in affected areas are advised to book by phone or come in person; the NHS app continues to work. NHS England said that most practice websites are working normally, with only those using Silicon Practice affected, and that affected practices have been contacted with advice on maintaining continuity of service.

Reaction from the professional community

Victoria Tzortziou Brown, President of the Royal College of GPs, said that practice websites are becoming an increasingly important channel of access to care, and that their being out of action is 'extremely disruptive' for patients and adds extra strain to already overstretched practice teams. In her words, affected practices need rapid practical support from NHS England and local organisations to restore their websites and explain to patients how to contact the practice. Notably, Silicon Practice advertised its FootFall tool as reducing the number of calls to practices by 30% — that is, precisely the channel patients will now have to rely on.

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