GP website outage: provider Silicon Practice collapses, patients told to phone
Websites of some GP practices in England and Wales have stopped working after the collapse of Silicon Practice. NHS England advises patients to contact their practice by phone or in person.
Author: Editorial teamPublished: 2 min read
Contents
Since 29 October 2026, some patients in England and Wales have been unable to open their GP practice websites. The cause is the collapse of Silicon Practice, a company that supplies such websites to NHS practices.
What happened
Silicon Practice trades under the company name Schappit Ltd. According to a 28 October 2026 notice from NHS West and North London ICB, the company has gone into administration. Polish Express, citing ITV, reports that the parent company, Schappit Ltd, filed for insolvency this month. Polish media describe this as liquidation.
According to the London ICB notice, three services are no longer available: the FootFall online consultation platform, practice websites and a chatbot. Practices using FootFall are asked to tell patients they can no longer submit online requests, and to offer other ways to make contact until a new provider is in place.
Scale of the problem
The company says on its website that it runs more than 1,000 practice websites and has worked with the NHS since 2005. The exact number of practices affected is not known. NHS England confirmed that the problem affects practices using Silicon Practice services.
Patients in London, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire and Swansea, among other places, received text messages warning that their practice websites were unavailable. Instead of content, a server error (bad gateway) is displayed, and booking appointments online is not possible. Some practices have put up temporary pages with contact details. It is not known how long the outage will last.
What NHS England says
An NHS England spokesperson stressed that most practice websites are working normally and that some practices will feel the effects of the company's collapse. The advice: if your practice website is down and you need help, contact the practice by phone or in person, as you normally would.
What this means for you
If your GP practice website is not working, do not wait for it to come back. Call reception or visit the practice. Some practices offer a temporary form or a page with a phone number. If you need urgent medical help, use the same routes as usual, including 111, or 999 in an emergency.
Sources
This article was prepared automatically by AI from the listed sources and published without prior editorial review. Spotted a mistake? Use the “Report an error in this article” button.
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- Cover: „surgery, hospital, doctor, care, clinic”, author: sasint, licence Pixabay Content License; cropped or resized.
- Photo 1: „pen, notebook, notepad, diary, stationery”, author: rupixen, licence Pixabay Content License; cropped or resized.
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