When a practice website goes offline, patients lose more than a webpage. They lose a familiar route to ordering a prescription, requesting help, checking opening hours or finding the right telephone number.
That is the situation practices using Silicon Practice / FootFall have been contacting us about this week. Our immediate job is straightforward: help get their essential information back online, check it with the practice, and make the next steps manageable for an already busy team. Once a practice confirms it wants to go ahead with us, we can start its emergency page while the formal agreement and payment are being arranged. Patients need that information now.
From Monday's enquiries to Tuesday's disruption
We began receiving enquiries from Silicon Practice / FootFall customers on Monday 26 October, while their websites were still online. Those early conversations were about moving provider and keeping essential patient information available.
On Tuesday 27 October, affected practices reported that their websites had become unavailable. Our focus shifted to helping those teams restore the information patients needed, as quickly as practical.
This account describes the enquiries and recovery work our team has been handling. It does not establish the cause of the disruption or the position of every Silicon Practice / FootFall customer. Our priority is helping affected practices with their next steps.
Helping practices get back online
Emergency help first. Paperwork follows.
We are getting affected practices back online, including emergency websites published on Tuesday, the day the disruption occurred. Our priority is to restore the essential information patients rely on and reduce disruption for practice teams.
Once a practice confirms it wants to proceed on the agreed prices and terms, we can begin its emergency page before the formal contract is signed or the invoice is paid. This emergency page is provided at no additional charge as part of the move to Tree View Designs.
Same-day publication depends on the information available, practice approval, domain arrangements and demand. We confirm the next steps and likely timing with each practice.
We have received more than 70 enquiries in recent days. Behind each one is a team trying to keep patients informed, often while dealing with uncertainty about its existing website. Where the essential content, approval and domain arrangements are ready, we have been turning emergency builds around in a matter of hours.
The team began work at 6am on Tuesday, with some colleagues continuing until around 1am on Wednesday to work through builds, enquiries and handovers. We know there are people at the other end of each request trying to keep a surgery running. Keeping them informed matters as much as getting the work done.
Essential information first. The fuller website follows.
An emergency website is deliberately focused. It is not the finished version of every page, policy and local service a practice will eventually need. Waiting for all of that would delay the information patients need now.
Appointments and getting help
How to contact the practice, request an appointment and reach its agreed online consultation service.
Prescriptions and online access
Clear routes to repeat prescriptions, the NHS App and other services the practice confirms are available.
Contact details and opening hours
The correct telephone number, address, surgery hours and practice-approved out-of-hours information.
Registration and important notices
Relevant registration links and a clear explanation of any temporary changes to patient services.
Where possible, we retrieve public content from web archives and combine it with information the practice supplies. Archived content can be out of date or incomplete, so we check the essentials with the practice rather than assuming an old page is still correct. This is public website content recovery, not recovery of patient records or previous clinical submissions.
The emergency page gets the essentials online while we arrange the formal agreement, invoice and build information with the practice. The full website build then follows once those steps are complete. We continue with the remaining content, local detail and refinements through the agreed website build and support service. Practices do not have to work through every missing page alone.
From the practices we have helped
A few words from their teams.
“Tree View Designs pulled it out of the bag. Thank you so much ☺️”
Lee
New Hayesbank Surgery
· Feedback excerpt
“I am so impressed by your service as a company. I literally did not imagine we would have something up and running this quickly.”
Eloise
Lawrence Hill Health Centre
· Feedback excerpt
We are grateful to both teams for taking the time to share their feedback while dealing with a difficult situation.
The website and clinical triage are different services
FootFall includes more than a public website. Its published service description also covers patient messaging, online consultations and clinical-system integration.
A link should only be displayed as available after the practice confirms it works. If a service is unavailable, the website needs clear alternative instructions agreed by the practice. That distinction helps patients reach the right place instead of following a broken route.
We are helping with the domain as well
Sometimes the content is ready before the original website address can be moved. We check the existing domain arrangements and, where appropriate, work with the NHS DNS team on an NHS domain while the original address is being resolved. Requirements and timing vary by practice.
If a temporary address is needed, we help the practice make it clear to patients where the new site is. Launching that site and completing the original domain transfer are separate steps; both need to be followed through.
Keeping the move affordable
We are extending our 50% discount on website development to help affected practices move across with Premium Support. The annual support fee is separate and includes hosting. For larger groups moving together, we can offer a development discount beyond 50%, with the scope, timetable and costs set out in a written proposal.
We have also contacted ICB teams about website continuity and coordinated rollouts. Where an organisation is helping several practices, we can work through the list together and prioritise those already offline, while giving each practice a clear route through the move.
Premium Support continues after launch, with help maintaining content, security maintenance, proactive accessibility support and an annual accessibility audit. A new website every three years is included. See what our support plans cover.
For practices, PCNs and ICB teams
Tell us what your practice needs.
Start with your practice name, current website address, main contact and anything patients cannot access. A practice leaflet and existing service links are useful too. Send what you have; we can work through the gaps together.
For several practices, include the names and addresses of each site and flag those already offline. Tamsin will coordinate the next steps with our build team. We will explain what can be delivered first and agree the arrangements with you.
Talk to us about emergency website supportPlease do not send patient information or passwords through the enquiry form.
We cannot take away the disruption that has already happened. We can give your team a clear next step, get the essentials in front of patients again and support the move to a website that is properly looked after. If your practice needs help, you are welcome to speak to us.
Update checked: 28 October 2026. Same-day examples refer to emergency websites, rather than completed full website builds. Customer comments are identified by their original source. The 70+ enquiry figure is our team's operational total across recent enquiries, not a count of unique practices.
