The Port of Dover has been affected by major IT issues which are also affecting trains, banks, health centres, airports and broadcasters worldwide.

There were queues in the buffer zone due to earlier problems with check-ins this morning (July 19) but these have since cleared.

In a statement ealier, a spokesperson said: “We are currently experiencing IT outages and are processing traffic through border control.

“Dwell times were slightly longer for check-ins this morning, but this has been resolved.”

However, operations are now “running smoothly”.

Motorists had also reported issues with some of the Dart Charge services meaning they couldn’t pay for the river crossing but says this has since been resolved.

A National Highways spokesperson said: ““The Dart Charge service is now fully operational following the global incident affecting IT systems. Payments for crossings and account top-ups can be made online or via the call centre.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

They are not the only transport services experiencing problems across their network with Thameslink and Southern Rail also facing delays.

Govia Thameslink Railway – the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – issued an alert on the brands’ social media channels.

The message stated: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.

“Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.

“We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.

“Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.

“We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

The railway firm carries more passengers and has more trains and staff than any other operator in Britain.

Across Kent, several doctors’ surgeries have reported issues with their computer systems including Staplehurst Health Centre, Manor Clinic, in Folkestone, and Jubilee Medical Group, in Longfield.

The outage is affecting EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is disrupting the majority of GP practices.

Medical director of the Kent Local Medical Committee, Dr Caroline Rickard, said: “Emis Web is currently not working properly due to the Microsoft IT Outage, this is the main software that GP practices across Kent and Medway use – we use this to book appointments, manage prescriptions and view and add to your patient record.

“Phone systems in many surgeries are cloud-based – we have some reports that patients can call in and appear to be held in a queue, but the surgery is unable to answer the call.

“There are different systems operating so your surgery may not be impacted in this way.

“If you have a booked appointment and have not been contacted by your surgery then attend as usual.

“If you have an on-the-day problem attempt to contact your surgery in the normal way. If you cannot contact your surgery then contact 111 or check NHS online for medical advice.

“Please check your practice website for up-to-date information.”

An NHS spokesperson added: “The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.

“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.”

Speaking to KentOnline, Dr Julian Spinks at the Sunlight Centre in Gillingham, said practices do not have paper records anymore, instead “overwhelmigly” using IT.

He added: “Whilst we do have contingency plans to maintain safety, what we are unable to do is the sort of routine things most people expect from their general practitioner.

“We have already had numerous meetings today to see what we can do to maintain services.

“We are looking at going back to pen and paper where we can but in reality so much is IT based now in the NHS, it is not going to be practical to do a lot of things that we can normally do.”

The surgery is phoning patients to rearrange appointments as it cannot access records and warn that repeat prescriptions may be delayed as only so many can be handwritten.

Shoppers at Morrisons, in Maidstone, and Waitrose, in King's Hill, have said the supermarkets’ are not able to take some forms of card payments.

Elsewhere in the UK, Sky News was off air and multiple airports are reporting delays including at Gatwick, Luton and Edinburgh.

Ryanair has also warned it is experiencing “disruption across the network” due to the global, third-party outage stating it is “out of its control”.

It comes as companies worldwide also report they are experiencing a major IT outage, affecting banks and airports, with flights being grounded.

It is believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software, CrowdStrike.

The firm’s chief executive George Kurtz said the company is “actively working” to fix a “defect” in an update for Microsoft Windows users which sparked the global IT outage.

He added Mac and Linux users were not impacted by the fault and it was “not a security incident or cyber attack”.

In short, it is a flaw in a software update pushed out to customers using Windows PCs causing many to crash and becoming unusable.

In a social media post, Mr Kurtz said: “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.

“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

“We further recommend organisations ensure they arre communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.

“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

CrowdStrike is one of the world’s largest cybersecurity providers, providing antivirus and cyberattack prevention tools to businesses.

In a statement, Microsoft added: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”

It is still unclear how long it will take to resolve the issue but due to the scale, it could take several days with disruption expected throughout the weekend.

Whitehall crisis officials are co-ordinating the response and the Cobra system that deals with matters of national emergency or major disruption has been fired up, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said.

Ministers are in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failures, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh saying she is working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights ground to a halt.

It came after the Liberal Democrats demanded ministers convene an urgent meeting of the Cobra emergency committee.