NHS medics are having to make decisions 'blind' and without patient history - after sick ransomware hackers held IT services hostage.
The cyber-attack targeted a major NHS IT provider Advanced, who cover services such as NHS 111 and patient check-ins.
Their services may not recover for a further three to four weeks after the ransomware hackers took control of the IT system.
The hackers try to take control of data and demand a ransom from their victims in order to recover the money.
Advanced, the IT company, have currently refused to say whether NHS data had been stolen - as the health service confirmed the disruption is minimal.
The IT service, which are based in Birmingham, first identified the hack at 7am on 4 August and were quick to take action in order to contain the hackers.
However, they are currently working to restore services fully.
Advanced said in a statement: "We are rebuilding and restoring impacted systems in a separate and secure environment."
Meanwhile, the BBC were told by an anonymous NHS psychiatrist the attack left his team "making clinical decisions nearly blind".
He told the BBC : "If a new patient came to us, we weren't able to read their history or know very much about them.
"The [local] trust are doing their best at setting up an alternative system, they've got a way that we can look at some historical notes now, and have set up another system to mean that we can input new notes.
"But there's still basically a week's worth of notes that we can't access. We've been told to be ready for it to not be up and running for who knows how long."
However, the NHS confirmed they have contingency plans in place for any such attacks.
An NHS England spokesperson said: "While Advanced has confirmed that the incident impacting their software is ransomware.
"The NHS has tried and tested contingency plans in place including robust defences to protect our own networks, as we work with the National Cyber Security Centre to fully understand the impact.
"The public should continue to use NHS services as normal, including NHS 111 for those who are unwell, although some people will face longer waits than usual.
"As ever, if it is an emergency, please call 999."
