Government bans fax machines in the NHS

stapp · Dec 9, 2018

The NHS will be banned from buying fax machines from next month - and has been told by the government to phase out the machines entirely by 31 March 2020.
In July, the Royal College of Surgeons revealed nearly 9,000 fax machines were in use across the NHS in England.
The Department of Health said a change to more modern communication methods was needed to improve patient safety and cyber security.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46497526

Bill_Bright · Dec 9, 2018

I think the health system in this country (the US) will come to a screeching halt if such a "needed" ban is imposed - at least when it comes to forwarding lab results to doctors. Not sure doing away with them will improve patient safety and cyber security, but it sure will spare a few trees and keep tons of shredded faxes out of landfills.

guest · Apr 6, 2020

The myth of the secure fax machine
April 6, 2020
https://www.itproportal.com/features/the-myth-of-the-secure-fax-machine/

Technology has fundamentally changed the way all organisations operate and communicate, with the speed of information sharing almost instantaneous. While private sector businesses are free to rip and replace technology systems at will, public sector organisations are slower on the uptake thanks to restricted budgets.

The NHS is most frequently lambasted for its use of older technology [...] When announcing the ban, Hancock claimed fax machines were ‘archaic’ and that ‘everyone else had got rid of them years ago’. That isn’t, however, entirely true.
While faxing may seem like a communication method of a bygone era, in reality nearly 17 billion faxes are sent around the world every year.

Often, a belief that fax machines are secure comes from the fact they cannot be accessed remotely, unlike digital communication tools.
While in transit, fax documents are not encrypted which means anyone who can access the phone line can, theoretically, can also access information sent via the fax machine.
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Fax machines are a hidden problem – but they are a big one. We know the public sector are prolific users, especially the NHS, and instead of insisting a complete policy shift in the way those using faxes communicate, there needs to simply be a more modern solution in use.
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Government bans fax machines in the NHS

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