How Microsoft outage is affecting police, airports and hospitals in the north-west of England
ReutersA global Microsoft outage is disrupting most workplaces and services across the north-west of England.
NHS and police services, along with airports and schools, are warning people about emails being down and finding work-around ways to help keep contact.
Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside Police forces have posted on their websites, saying there were issues with online forms and its live chat service, advising people to call 101 for time-critical non-emergency reports.
Both Manchester and Liverpool airports said the outage had not affected any operational systems, and everything was running as normal.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said only its corporate set-up and "minor technical processes" were affected.
The airport is using a work-around for processing domestic passengers, but this is an established process, he said.
Meanwhile a spokesman for Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: "It's not affecting us operationally and it's business as usual".
The worldwide disruption began on Thursday, affecting Microsoft's email, messaging and other online services.
Microsoft said attempts to restore services had not worked as expected, but it was continuing efforts to resolve the problems.
The company said there was no indication the disruption had been caused by a cyber-attack.
Parents are being contacted by schools across the North West, providing alternative ways to contact them.
Fleetwood High School warned parents and pupils that email communications were affected, advising them to telephone the school for urgent matters.
LDRSIn Greater Manchester, The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs hospitals in Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, said its email services were affected by the outage.
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside, said the main impact was on staff emails, but patients should attend appointments as planned.
The trust said the problems should not affect systems used for patient care or appointments.
In Lancashire, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust also reported email problems, warning that people contacting it could experience delays.
However, the trusts said hospital and community services were continuing as normal and advised patients to attend appointments unless contacted directly.
Most Lancashire councils have told the BBC they were also affected and could not respond to emails.
Lancashire County Council said it was "currently experiencing technical difficulties with our email system, which may affect the sending and receiving of emails".
The outage is also limiting pharmacies' ability to communicate with GP practices and some patients across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.
The UK National Pharmacy Association warns waits may be longer for prescriptions.
EPAThe University of Manchester has warned staff they may experience disruption to email, online meetings and shared files as Microsoft works to restore services worldwide.
The university said the outage was affecting Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.
It advised staff to use telephone calls or text messages for urgent communications and to save documents directly to their computers if shared online services were unavailable.
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