What happens when your website provider suddenly disappears?

Imagine arriving at work to discover that your practice website has stopped working.

Patients cannot find your opening hours, contact details or the links they normally use to request appointments, order prescriptions or access other services.

You email your website provider, but nobody answers. You email them, but no one replies.

You want to move to another supplier, but then discover you cannot access the settings needed to redirect your existing website address.

Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical situation.

It is exactly what we have been dealing with this week, following the collapse of Schappit Ltd, the parent company of Silicon Practice Digital Health Solutions.

And we are far from alone.

As reported by Pulse Today, practices across the country have been affected, with websites becoming unavailable and teams having to find alternative arrangements at extremely short notice.

For Practice Managers already balancing competing operational pressures, this is another problem nobody needed.

But our experience has highlighted some important lessons that every GP practice should consider, whether or not they have been affected by Silicon Practice’s collapse.

Our experience: From business continuity warning to website failure

Late on Friday 23 October, we received notification through NHS England that Silicon Practice’s parent company had entered administration.

Practices were advised to consider the potential impact and implement their business continuity arrangements.

Like many others, we began looking at our options.

At that point, our practice website was still functioning. However, there was considerable uncertainty about how long this would continue.

By Tuesday 27 October, the situation had deteriorated.

Our website became unavailable for several hours before unexpectedly returning later in the afternoon.

Then, on Wednesday 28 October, it went down again, seemingly for good.

Throughout this period, we were personally unable to make contact with Silicon Practice.

What made the situation particularly frustrating was that, while our practice website was unavailable, Silicon Practice’s own website remained accessible, with no obvious indication to visitors that anything had changed.

We were left trying to maintain access to important patient information without being able to communicate with the company responsible for hosting our website.

There is, of course, a human side to this situation too.

Our thoughts are with the staff at Silicon Practice. We have always found the people we have dealt with to be lovely, and we sincerely hope they are receiving the support they need during what must be an incredibly difficult and uncertain time.

Nevertheless, practices have a responsibility to maintain services for their patients, and we needed to act quickly.

The problem we hadn’t fully appreciated: Who controls our website address?

One of the biggest challenges was not simply that our website had stopped working.

It was that we couldn’t immediately redirect our existing website address to another provider.

This is where something called DNS becomes particularly important.

What is DNS, and why should Practice Managers care?

DNS stands for Domain Name System.

Think of it as the internet’s address book.

When somebody types your practice’s website address into their browser, DNS tells their computer where to find your website.

Your website address and the website itself are actually two different things.

For example:

• Your domain name is the address patients type in, such as yourpractice.co.uk.
• Your website provider is the company hosting the pages, information and services patients see.
• Your DNS settings connect that address to the correct website.

If your website provider goes out of business, you should be able to arrange for your domain name to point towards a replacement website.

But what happens if the company that has disappeared also controls those settings?

That is the difficulty we encountered.

We could arrange a replacement website, but we couldn’t simply make our existing .co.uk address take patients to it.

The lesson is simple: Your practice must have a way of managing its website address independently of its website supplier.

Our solution: Moving to an NHS.uk domain

Rather than wait for our existing website address to become accessible, we decided to establish a new address using the NHS.uk domain service.

This is provided through NHS England’s digital services, formerly NHS Digital.

Instead of relying on a commercial website provider to manage the settings that direct patients to our website, we can request DNS changes through the NHS service.

This means that if we change website providers in the future, we can ask for our NHS.uk address to be directed to the new website.

We don’t need to rely on our outgoing supplier to make that change.

How we arranged our new NHS.uk address

We contacted the NHS Digital team and requested a new domain name for the surgery.

Practices can do this through the official service:

Apply for a new NHS.uk domain

In our case, the team responded extremely quickly and helped us establish our new address.

The important distinction is that the NHS.uk address can now be managed independently of whichever commercial company provides our website.

For us, this is one of the most important lessons from the entire experience.

Does an NHS.uk domain eliminate the risks?

Not entirely, and this is an important distinction.

Having an NHS.uk domain with its DNS managed through the NHS reduces the risk of being unable to redirect your website address if a commercial supplier disappears.

However, it does not guarantee that your website will always be available.

Your website still needs to be hosted somewhere, and that hosting provider could experience technical problems, cyber incidents or financial difficulties.

There is also the question of your website content.

If your provider disappears and you don’t have a copy of your website, you could still face having to rebuild it, even if you have full control over the address.

Think of it as three separate responsibilities:

1. Your website address: Making sure the practice can control where patients are directed.
2. Your website hosting: Making sure the website itself is available and supported.
3. Your website content: Making sure important information and documents can be recovered if something goes wrong.

An NHS.uk domain can help significantly with the first, but practices still need appropriate arrangements for the other two.

This is why website resilience needs to form part of a wider business continuity plan, rather than relying on a single technical solution.

Getting our website back online with My Practice Manager

Of course, having a new website address is only half the solution.

We still needed an actual website for patients to use.

Fortunately, the team at My Practice Manager had developed a solution specifically to help practices facing this situation.

Their service provides a straightforward way of establishing a temporary website so essential patient information and links can be made available quickly.

We had already been speaking with the My Practice Manager team about the developing situation, so when our website failed, we were able to move quickly.

They prepared our temporary website, we checked the essential information, and the NHS DNS team connected our new address.

Within around an hour of the final arrangements being made, our new temporary website was live on our NHS.uk domain.

Patients could once again find our contact details, opening hours and links to the online services they needed.

It was a huge relief.

The My Practice Manager team have published their own account of how we worked together to restore access:

GP Practice Website Back Online the Next Day

A practical temporary solution for affected practices

For practices whose websites have disappeared, My Practice Manager offers an option to restore a basic online presence without waiting for a full website redevelopment.

This provides some much-needed breathing space.

Rather than rushing into a new long-term website contract simply because patients cannot access essential information, practices can restore the basics and make a more considered decision once the immediate pressure has passed.

If your practice has been affected, we would certainly encourage you to explore the support they can offer.

What about our original .co.uk website address?

Although we now have a functioning NHS.uk address, many patients will continue using our previous website address.

It may be saved in their bookmarks, appear in search results or be printed on letters and other practice materials.

We therefore still need to regain control of it.

As part of this process, we contacted Nominet, the organisation responsible for the .uk domain registry.

They were able to advise that our existing domain was registered through 123 Reg.

After contacting 123 Reg, we were directed to their domain access recovery process:

123 Reg Domain Access Recovery

Recovering a domain isn’t necessarily straightforward

The recovery process requires evidence to demonstrate that you are authorised to take control of the domain.

In our case, this includes:

• Proof of personal identity: Such as a driving licence or passport.
• Proof of the business or organisation: Such as an HMRC statement.

This is understandable. Domain registrars need to make sure they are not handing control of a website address to somebody who isn’t authorised to manage it!

However, it introduces another administrative hurdle at a time when practices are already under considerable pressure.

It is also worth remembering that the person completing the application may need to demonstrate their authority to act on behalf of the organisation.

For GP partnerships, this is another reason to ensure that domain registration details and responsibilities are properly documented.

We are now following this process to establish the necessary access and control over our original .co.uk address.

Once this has been resolved, our intention is to redirect visitors from the old address to our new NHS.uk website.

That means patients using our previous address should automatically arrive at the correct website.

In the meantime, we are continuing to communicate our new address through alternative channels. This includes sending an SMS message to all patients over 16. However, you need to discuss this with your ICB as this needs to be sepearate from any SMS allowance your ICB may have.

Will we need to rebuild our original website?

At this stage, we simply don’t know.

With Silicon Practice currently unreachable, it remains uncertain whether practices will be able to retrieve their original website content and configuration.

We are working on the assumption that we may need to recreate our website with a new permanent supplier.

Hopefully, more information will become available as the administration process develops.

However, this is another important consideration for practices.

Do you have an up-to-date copy of your website content? Could you retrieve it if your provider disappeared tomorrow?

Even if you can regain control of your website address, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can recover the website itself.

Why this matters more than we might think

It would be easy to dismiss a website outage as an inconvenience.

After all, in many practices, the clinical systems, online consultation platforms and prescription services are hosted separately.

In our case, these services were not dependent on Silicon Practice hosting our main website, but this is not the case for all affected Silicon practices, as some may use their online consultation software, Foot Fall.

But that misses an important point.

For many patients, the practice website is the front door to those services.

Patients don’t necessarily know the direct address for your online consultation system.

They might not remember which platform you use for requesting medication.

Some simply search for the practice name because they need the telephone number.

When the website disappears, those patients can suddenly find themselves unsure how to access services that are otherwise still working perfectly well.

That creates confusion, increases telephone demand and adds further pressure to reception and administrative teams.

It can also create genuine risks where patients are unable to find clear information about how to seek appropriate care.

This is why website availability needs to be treated as a business continuity issue, not simply an IT problem.

What should every Practice Manager do now?

Whether your practice has been affected by Silicon Practice, uses another commercial supplier or already has an NHS.uk domain, there are some straightforward checks worth making.

1. Find out who controls your domain name

This is the single most important action.

Ask your current website provider:

• Who is the registered holder of our website address?
• Who has access to change the DNS settings?
• Can the practice access or manage these settings independently?
• What happens to our domain name if your company stops trading?
• How would we redirect our address to another provider in an emergency?

Don’t assume that because you pay for your website, you automatically control the domain name.

Make sure you understand the arrangements and document them in your business continuity plan.

2. Consider moving to an NHS.uk domain

If you are currently using a .co.uk or other commercial domain as your main website address, consider whether moving to an NHS.uk address would provide greater resilience.

An NHS.uk domain managed through the NHS DNS service can allow the practice to maintain its address independently of its commercial website hosting provider.

You can still use a commercial company to build and host your website.

The difference is that your website provider does not need to control the address itself.

Remember, though, that this is only one part of the solution. You will still need appropriate hosting, backups and recovery arrangements.

Apply for an NHS.uk domain

3. Review your website business continuity arrangements

Ask yourself what would happen if your website disappeared tomorrow morning.

Could you quickly publish a temporary page?

Would you know how to redirect your existing website address?

Do you have a record of the important information and links on your website?

And, crucially, who would be responsible for coordinating the response?

Consider including website failure as a specific scenario within your business continuity plan.

4. Make sure patients have alternative ways to access services

This week’s events have reinforced the importance of promoting the NHS App.

For many patients, the NHS App provides an alternative route to services such as ordering repeat prescriptions, viewing parts of their health record and accessing available appointment booking functionality.

The exact services available will depend on the practice and the patient’s circumstances.

It also reduces reliance on patients having to visit the practice website simply to find the correct link.

This is a good opportunity to review how actively your practice promotes the NHS App and whether patients understand what they can use it for.

However, remember that not every patient can or wants to use digital services. Telephone and in-person access arrangements remain equally important.

5. Keep patient communications up to date

If your website address changes, make sure patients know.

Consider updating your NHS website profile, telephone messages, SMS communications, email signatures, Google Business Profile and any other channels where your old website address appears.

Also check whether third-party services link back to your previous website.

A new website is only useful if patients can find it.

Free resource: Website Business Continuity Checklist

To help practices take some practical action following this week’s events, we’ve created a Website Business Continuity Checklist.

It’s designed for Practice Managers and practice leadership teams, with no specialist technical knowledge required.

The checklist covers:

• Domain ownership and DNS: Understanding who controls your website address and how you would regain access.
• Website hosting and backups: Making sure your content and essential services can be recovered.
• Patient access and communications: Ensuring patients can still find important information when your website is unavailable.
• Emergency response: Identifying responsibilities, alternative arrangements and actions to include in your business continuity plan.

You can download the Website Business Continuity Checklist at the bottom of this guide.

This checklist is intended to help practices identify risks before an incident occurs, so if there is one practical thing you take away from this article, make it a priority to complete this checklist with your relevant practice team. It could save a considerable amount of time and disruption in the future!

This isn’t the first warning for general practice

The Silicon Practice situation follows the announcement that My Surgery Website would be closing its website services in early 2027.

While the circumstances are different, both developments raise an important question.

How dependent are GP practices on individual commercial suppliers for something as fundamental as their online presence?

There will always be a role for commercial website providers.

Many deliver excellent services, and practices should have the flexibility to choose a supplier that meets their needs.

But changing suppliers should not mean losing access to the website address patients have relied upon for years.

Practices should be able to move between providers without unnecessary disruption.

That is why separating control of the domain name from the website hosting arrangements is so important.

A wider lesson for NHS England

Once the immediate disruption has settled, NHS England needs to consider what lessons can be learned from this situation.

We increasingly encourage patients to use digital routes to access general practice.

Websites are an essential part of that approach.

Yet this week’s events have demonstrated how vulnerable those access routes can become when a commercial supplier experiences financial difficulties.

The NHS.uk domain service offers an important part of the solution, but we should also consider whether more can be done nationally to protect practices from similar disruption in the future.

Could all practices be encouraged to use NHS-managed domains?

Should there be clearer expectations around domain ownership, website content backups and emergency access arrangements?

Could there be a nationally supported process for rapidly establishing temporary websites when a major supplier fails?

These are questions worth exploring.

The aim should not be to remove choice or discourage innovation.

It should be to ensure that whichever provider a practice chooses, patients are not left without essential information and access routes because that provider suddenly becomes unavailable.

Final thoughts

It has been a challenging few days, and we know many Practice Managers and their teams will be experiencing the same frustrations.

The uncertainty, the inability to contact a supplier and the pressure to restore services quickly are difficult enough without the additional complications of domain names and DNS settings.

We are incredibly grateful to the NHS Digital and My Practice Manager teams for their responsiveness and support in getting the surgery back online.

Our temporary website is now available, and we can take the time needed to consider our longer-term arrangements.

But if there is one thing we would encourage every Practice Manager to do after reading this article, it is this:

Don’t wait until your website provider disappears to find out who controls your website address.

Make it a priority to check it today!

Make sure your practice has a way to manage that address independently, and consider the benefits of moving to an NHS.uk domain.

Download our free checklist and take the time to review your arrangements.

It is a relatively small piece of business continuity planning that could make an enormous difference when you need it most.

And if your practice has been affected by the Silicon Practice situation and you need a temporary solution, take a look at My Practice Manager’s website recovery service.

Sometimes the most important thing isn’t having the perfect website.

It’s making sure your patients can still find you.