Patients in Rutland and Leicestershire Urged to Attend NHS Appointments Amid Global Microsoft Outage
Health bosses across Rutland and Leicestershire are reassuring patients that NHS services remain open and operating as normal today (Friday, November 13), despite a widespread global Microsoft outage affecting local agencies and public services.
The major technical disruption, which began late on Thursday afternoon and has continued into Friday morning, has impacted thousands of users worldwide across core Microsoft platforms including Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and its AI software, Copilot.
While multiple agencies, emergency services, and local authorities across the region have reported disruptions to their email and internal communication systems, both Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust have confirmed that clinical care is going ahead.
Official Advice for Patients In a statement issued today, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust urged anyone with a scheduled appointment to attend unless contacted directly by their care team:
"We are currently assessing the impact of the global Microsoft outage on our IT systems. Our services continue to run as normal, so please attend any appointments as planned unless we contact you directly. Our teams are working to reduce any disruption and patient care remains our top priority."
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust echoed the guidance, confirming that hospital systems are being assessed while routine care continues. Nationally, NHS leaders also reassured the public that clinical and operational systems remain functional, advising patients to use NHS 111 for immediate medical advice or 999 in an emergency.
Expect Busier Phone Lines because email servers and Microsoft Teams are experiencing intermittent access issues across local public bodies including Councils which has also warned of email disruptions more enquiries are being routed via telephone.
Patients needing to speak with a healthcare team today are advised to call directly, use the department telephone number listed on your appointment letter rather than sending an email.
Allow extra time, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has warned that telephone lines may be busier than usual while IT teams manage the disruption.
Microsoft has stated that it is seeing "early signs of stabilisation" as engineers work to restore full service to Outlook, Teams, and related platforms.
