GPs suffered severe issues with their emails today, after one user accidentally sent an email to 840,000 NHS staff using the NHS Mail system.
NHS Digital, which manages the system, said the issue was further made worse by people hitting ‘reply all’ to question why they received the message.
It said in a status alert: ’An issue with a distribution list has meant that several test emails have been widely recieved by users.
‘This has been exacerbated by recipients replying in response and increasing the volume of emails associated with the list.’
A spokesperson said a ‘number of email accounts have been operating slower than normal’, with this ‘due to an NHS Mail user setting up an email distribution list which inadvertently included everyone on the NHS Mail system’.
They later clarified that the issue had arisen because ‘a bug in the supplier’s system, inadvertently included everyone on the NHS Mail list.’
They said that the issue was expected to be ‘rectified soon’, adding that ‘as soon as we became aware of the issue, we deleted the distribution list so that no-one else could respond to it’.
GPs took to social media to vent their frustration.
Twitter user @Paul77C, who said they were a GP in West Yorkshire, suggested the sender had been a senior IT worker.
Going to be a long day in #NHSmail as a senior ICT delivery facilitator seems to have sent an email to everyone in the whole NHS
— Paul Carrotte (@Paul77C) November 14, 2016
