Silicon Practice administration leaves hundreds of GP practice websites offline in England and Wales

How the outage spread

Silicon Practice ran the digital services behind many GP surgeries, including websites, online booking and online consultations. It served around 500 practices in England, just under 10% of the total, while the company itself claims that more than 1,000 practices rely on it. Practices in London, Gloucestershire and Norfolk have reported problems, and services in Wales are affected too. Swansea Bay University Health Board said it knew of three practice websites that had ceased to operate. The West and North London Integrated Care Board told practices using Silicon's services to warn patients that they will not have access to online consultation requests until an alternative provider is in place.

Practices using Silicon Practice (around)500

GP practices in England (more than)6,000

Practices using Silicon Practice (around)

500 practices

GP practices in England (more than)

6000 practices

Data from the article text

Impact on patients

Since 2025, all practices in England have had to offer online appointment booking, and more than 40% of appointments are now made that way. GP leaders said the failure would cause serious disruption given the scale of online booking. Patients in affected areas have been told to book by phone, while the NHS app is still working. Some practice websites now show only a 'Bad Gateway' error, including Millwood Medical Practice in Great Yarmouth and Southgate Surgery in north London. Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of GPs, said the outage would be disruptive for patients and for practice teams.

“When websites are not working, it can be hugely disruptive for patients and place additional pressures on already stretched practice teams.”

She called for prompt, practical support from NHS England and local NHS organisations to restore the websites and keep patients informed about how to reach their practice.

Administration and the company's position

A notice of administration was filed by Silicon's parent company, Schappit Ltd, earlier in October 2026 after the firm faced financial difficulties. Rowcroft Medical Centre in Stroud said it received information late on 24 October that the company running GP websites across the county had gone into administration. Silicon marketed its FootFall tool as cutting patient phone calls to practices by 30%, by freeing reception teams from routine admin. The firm's claim that FootFall was proven in more than 1,000 GP practices across the UK now sits alongside the collapse of the business behind it.

Practices' response and next steps

Rowcroft Medical Centre said its appointments, telephone calls, emails, NHS app and Facebook page were unaffected, and asked patients who had submitted an online form in the last four hours without a reply to call its patient advisers. School Lane Surgery in Thetford described the problem as a national issue affecting multiple GP surgeries, and said its website and online forms would be out for longer than it had hoped. It has no confirmed date for restoring access and is exploring alternative options while it waits for updates from NHS England. NHS England said it had contacted affected practices with advice on business continuity and on minimising the impact on patient care.

“While the majority of GP practice websites are running as normal, some practices which use Silicon Practice will be affected by the company going into administration.”

If a practice website is unavailable, NHS England advises patients to contact their practice by phone or in person as usual.