Two NHS hospitals suffer major IT incident ahead of doctors’ strikes

Staff at two hospitals in the south west of England have resorted to using paper after a major IT incident just days before the planned resident doctors’ strikes.

Cheltenham and Gloucester NHS Foundation Trust reported on its website that it suffered an IT outage on 22 July 2025, as the result of a server issue.

The outage has caused further disruption, as the trust announced that it will reduce A&E services in preparation for the five-day resident doctor strike over pay disputes, planned from 25 July to 30 July.

In a statement, published on 23 July, the trust said: “We continue to experience disruption to some of our IT systems following the incident yesterday.

“We can confirm that this disruption has been the result of a server issue and is not a cyber incident.

“While some services have been restored, others remain intermittently affected and this is expected to continue throughout the day.

“Our teams are working hard to fully restore systems and minimise any impact on patient care.

“We are prioritising safety and have well-established contingency plans in place to support our services.”

According to a report in The Independent, the trust diverted heart attack patients to the surrounding Bristol hospital, which has since been stood down.

Staff have also been asked to use an alternative number for emergencies as telephone extensions are impacted.

Thousands of resident doctors across England are expected to walk out in the 12th strike from resident doctors since March 2023, resulting in 49 days of disruption to NHS services.

The British Medical Association is demanding a pay uplift of 26% (backdated to April 2025) for resident doctors to restore the full value of their salaries to the level they were at in 2008.

NHS England said in a press release that it has asked hospital chief executives to keep routine operations going to the fullest extent possible during this round of strikes and only reschedule appointments and other activity in exceptional circumstances to safeguard patient safety.

The NHS is therefore advising the public to continue to attend any planned appointments they have scheduled over the strike period unless they have been contacted to reschedule

Professor Meghana Pandit, national medical director at NHSE, said: “There is no doubt this industrial action will take a toll on patients and NHS staff, and it is disappointing it is going ahead.

“While it will mean some appointments won’t be able to go ahead as planned, we are doing all we can to limit this, and patients should continue to use NHS services in the usual way.”

Since strikes began at the end of 2022, the cumulative total of hospital appointments rescheduled is now 1,486,258 across the NHS.

The previous round of industrial action by resident doctors at the end of June 2024 saw 61,989 inpatient and outpatient appointments rescheduled, and 23,001 staff were absent from work due to strikes at the peak of the action.

However some resident doctors in London were permitted to break the strike to assist at sites affected by the cyber attack on pathology system provider Synnovis, on 3 June 2024.