GP practices struggling with internet outage

GP practices in south-east England are experiencing "difficulty in connecting to the internet", according to health officials.

Patients in Kent have reported difficulties to the BBC, while surgeries in both Kent and Sussex have been reporting intermittent issues for multiple days.

Practices are open as normal despite the tech problems, according to NHS Kent and Medway, with patients asked to "bear with practice staff who are doing their best".

The organisation said that the NHS service that provided IT to GPs in the county and across swathes of southern and western England was investigating the outage.

River Darent Medical Group said that staff were unable to access systems effectively at its two practices in Kent and it had "decided to close routine and urgent requests" on Tuesday.

Aylesham Medical Practice has reported issues on social media since 15 April, including being "unable to triage and reply" to online requests.

Meanwhile, Woodlands Health Centre in Paddock Wood said on Monday that its computers were "intermittent".

In East Sussex, Bexhill Primary Care Network reported on 16 April that GPs "may be unable to use clinical systems, emails and other online services" and that the issue was "identified as a major incident".

More than a million people a month in the South East get in touch with their GP online, according to the latest figures.

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