AIRPORTS, railway stations and GP surgeries have been hit by a major IT outage this morning.

Passengers and patients are warned of delays and disruption as Microsoft confirmed it was investigating a global outage which has affected vital NHS services in the UK and airlines across the world.

GP surgeries across Cheshire say patients are unable to book appointments, order prescriptions or access records.

Manchester Airport has confirmed that some airlines have been affected which means that check-in and boarding is being carried out manually.

A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: “The global IT problems are affecting some of our airlines this morning.

“That means some processes like check-in and boarding are being carried out manually and are taking longer than usual for those airlines.

“The majority of flights operating from the airport are unaffected but the terminals are slightly busier than usual as a result of the situation.

“As always, passengers are advised to check the status of their flights with their airline before they leave for the airport and should follow their airlines' advice about the best time to arrive at the airport. We also advise checking up-to-date travel advice as some train services have also been affected by the issues.

“Some of our retailers have also been affected meaning they have been unable to process card payments.

“We thank all our passengers for their patience and understanding.”

A spokesman for Wilmslow Health Centre said: “All practices in the UK using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems.

“This is beyond the control of GP surgeries.

“Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online.”

Rail passengers are among those affected.

Train service information National Rail Enquiries said there are ‘widespread IT issues across the entire network’.

Passengers are advised to check before they travel.