Silicon Practice collapses, leaving NHS GP websites offline

Hundreds of GP Websites Go Dark Across England and Wales

Hundreds of National Health Service GP practice websites across England and Wales went offline after their online service provider entered administration without warning, ITV News reported. Silicon Practice, a software company that claimed to proudly serve one thousand websites for general practitioner practices and had partnered with the health service since 2005, collapsed after parent company Schappit Ltd filed a notice of administration earlier in October.

Patients across regions including London, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Swansea, Bedfordshire, and Norfolk received sudden notifications advising them that routine online services were no longer available. A message from Southgate Surgery in North London stated that its website was temporarily unavailable because the provider went into administration without warning. Similar disruptions hit practices such as Marston Forest Healthcare in Bedfordshire, Painswick Surgery, and The Chipping Surgery in Gloucestershire.

Financial Collapse and Cession of Trading

Schappit Ltd traded under the names Silicon Practice, Piota, and ImproveWell, supplying FootFall—a system utilized by general practice surgeries for online patient access and consultations. Financial difficulties mounted until Richard Paul Rendle of administrator firm Rendle & Co was appointed on October 16. Mr. Rendle contacted NHS England prior to his appointment to warn that the business would cease trading without support. In the absence of continued funding, the company officially ceased trading at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, October 27, leaving telephone lines playing a recorded message stating that staff could not respond to queries for the immediate future.

NHS Boards Monitor Disruption at GP Surgeries

The Central East NHS region integrated care board confirmed that 49 practices in its area had online services provided by Schappit Ltd, though officials did not immediately specify the exact number experiencing active outages. The Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board also monitored local impacts across East Anglia. Swansea Bay University Health Board confirmed that some practices in its Welsh jurisdiction were similarly affected by the third-party collapse. GP surgeries expressed acute concern over mounting administrative workloads, as a substantial volume of daily patient contacts ordinarily flows through online portals.

NHS England confirmed that practices using Silicon Practice were affected but did not specify a timeline for full restoration. A spokesperson stated that while the majority of health service practice websites ran as normal, affected practices must confirm their mitigation plans with relevant integrated care boards, supported by regional digital teams providing oversight and assurance.

Patients Use Phones or NHS 111 for Care

Surgeries instructed patients to contact practices by phone, in person, or through alternative online arrangements where available, such as Anima. Patients who submitted online requests prior to the outage were advised to contact their surgeries directly to verify whether staff received them. For urgent medical help when general practices remain unavailable, patients were directed to contact NHS 111 or call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.