Berkshire

IT Outage Causes Service Delays at Slough Medical Centre

By

Karen McGinn
22 April 2026, 2:17 pm

Patients at Herschel Medical Centre in Slough are facing potential service delays due to a regional computer network problem affecting the practice’s systems.

The medical centre, located at 45 Osborne Street, has confirmed the technical issues may impact several key services, including appointment bookings, repeat prescriptions, medical referrals, and the processing of test results. Residents may also experience difficulty getting through to the practice via telephone or online messaging services.

Staff at the surgery are currently working to resolve the issue and are asking patients to remain patient as they manage the disruption. The practice, which is rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission, serves approximately between 12,500 and 16,000 registered patients.

Herschel Medical Centre is a member of the Central Slough Network, one of four groups of GP practices in the area that together serve more than 50,000 people. Oversight for local health services in the town is provided by the NHS Thames Valley Integrated Care Board, which was formed on 1 April 2026.

While this current incident is limited to regional network problems, technical disruptions have occasionally affected broader NHS operations in recent years. In October 2025, a large-scale outage forced several NHS trusts across the country to temporarily revert to paper-based records to ensure continuity of patient care.

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