NHS IT outages disrupt 274,620 patient interactions

NHS England and five of the UK's largest hospital trusts recorded 274,620 IT incidents in 2025. Analysis of Freedom of Information data also found that major outages disrupted tens of thousands of patient interactions.

The figures cover Manchester University, Guy's and St Thomas', Newcastle Hospitals, Mid and South Essex, Barts Health and NHS England. They point to repeated disruption across both local systems and wider incidents, with effects ranging from cancelled operations to delayed routine appointments.

On the day of the Synnovis ransomware attack, the five trusts reported that 14,287 operations and appointments were cancelled or moved. During the global IT outage in July 2024, 12,528 patient interactions were disrupted across the same group. Another major incident in October 2025 led to 8,527 disruptions across four of the five trusts.

The data suggests routine care absorbed most of the disruption. Information from three of the five trusts showed that appointments accounted for an average of 95% of total patient disruptions, indicating that the impact extended well beyond surgical procedures.

That pattern matters for a health service already under pressure to reduce waiting lists and improve access to care. Missed or delayed appointments can affect follow-up consultations, diagnostics, preventative treatment and scheduled operations.

The findings also exposed uneven reporting across NHS organisations. Some trusts said they did not hold data linking IT incidents to patient care, while others could not provide figures on incident duration or the total number of incidents during the year.

This suggests the full effect on services may be greater than the published totals. Because the data depends on what individual organisations were able to record and return, gaps in record-keeping make it difficult to build a complete picture of where outages occur, how long they last and which services are most affected.

Reporting gaps

The variation in responses points to a wider problem in how digital disruption is measured across the health service. Without common reporting standards, comparisons between trusts are difficult and national oversight is limited.

Several of the largest disruptions were tied to events outside an individual trust's direct control. The Synnovis incident affected pathology services in London, while the global IT outage in July 2024 hit organisations across sectors. This shows how NHS services can be exposed to problems involving suppliers and broader technology systems, as well as their own internal infrastructure.

At the same time, the aggregate total of more than 274,000 incidents in one year suggests smaller IT failures remain a frequent part of day-to-day operations. Not every incident will have led to patient harm or widespread service disruption, but the volume underlines how dependent frontline care has become on stable digital systems.

Paula Lender-Swain, regional director, public sector UK, Dynatrace, said: "The data clearly shows that NHS IT outages are a widespread issue that isn't confined to individual trusts or one-off events. Outages are occurring at scale across multiple regions, with thousands of patient interactions affected on a single day - and not just the operations that are already being widely reported. With digital disruption now a system-wide challenge, IT outages can no longer be regarded as simply a technical issue. They have a direct and measurable impact on patients' ability to access care when and where they need it."

She added: "When systems go down, it's routine services like appointments that are most affected. That not only has a direct impact on NHS waiting lists but also threatens early diagnosis and preventative treatment."

Wider pressure

The data comes as the NHS seeks to expand its use of digital services and artificial intelligence across administration and clinical care. That ambition increases the importance of reliable infrastructure, especially in hospitals where appointments, records, diagnostics and communications depend on interconnected systems.

Lender-Swain said: "Without consistent, centralised reporting, there's no joined-up picture of how IT outages are affecting patient care and valuable clinician time, making it harder to identify patterns, address root causes and fully understand the impact on services."

She added: "As the NHS looks to deliver on its ambition to become one of the most AI-enabled healthcare systems in the world, it must first address these foundational gaps in visibility and resilience. Without a clear, real-time understanding of system performance and patient impact, organisations risk operating with blind spots. By strengthening observability and unifying data across systems, the NHS can move from reacting to incidents to managing them proactively - reducing disruption, supporting staff and ensuring infrastructure is ready for the next phase of digital healthcare."