Cyber attack causes NHS 111 software outage

It has been confirmed that a cyber attack caused a software outage affecting the NHS 111 service.

The attack affected the system used to refer patients for care, out-of-hours appointment booking, emergency prescriptions and ambulance dispatch.

The attack was spotted at 7am on Thursday, according to Advanced, a firm providing digital services for NHS 111.

The head of Advanced, Simon Short, said: "A security issue was identified yesterday, which resulted in loss of service."

"We can confirm that the incident is related to a cyber-attack and as a precaution, we immediately isolated all our health and care environments."

He said the issue had been contained "to a small number of servers".

The NHS also said that the disruption was minimal and it was monitoring the situation.

The National Crime Agency said it was "aware of a cyber incident" and was working with Advanced.

NHS England warned family doctors in London, that they could receive an increased number of patients sent to them by NHS 111. According to industry magazine, Pulse, London GPs received a letter saying the problem was affecting the electronic referral process for patients.