Three Nhs Trusts Still Using Fax Machines, Streeting Confesses

One 100 and eighty years aft nan first fax machines started grinding retired messages, 3 NHS trusts successful England are still utilizing nan technology.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting had made it his individual ngo to banish nan fax, pledging to Radio 5 Live successful October 2024 that he would shape them retired of nan wellness work wrong a year.

Now he has returned pinch an update - and it is not rather ngo accomplished.

"I'm happy to study that having gone distant and scoured nan NHS for grounds of fax machines being put to use, of nan 205 NHS trusts we person successful nan country, only 3 are now utilizing fax machines for mundane use, which are Leeds, Birmingham and Shrewsbury and Telford," Streeting said.

"Now, successful nan lawsuit of Leeds and Birmingham, they person a scheme to shape them retired wholly successful nan adjacent 12 months.

"Shrewsbury and Telford's going to return them a spot longer."

Streeting told maine he was now moving pinch nan 3 institutions - Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust - to move into nan 20th century, if not nan 21st.

But he added: "I decided that having been told by these trusts that were I to politically bid them to cease usage I would origin them immoderate rather important operational headaches, I decided to do nan correct point and explicate to you that location are still 3 trusts utilizing fax machines."

Fax machines - formally known arsenic facsimile machines - utilized to beryllium a acquainted fixture successful offices arsenic good arsenic schools, hospitals and constabulary stations crossed nan country.

They worked by allowing users to provender a page of matter aliases images into a machine, which would beryllium sent complete a telephone statement and printed retired for nan recipient.

The exertion was overtaken by email successful nan early 2000s, but persisted successful immoderate offices, peculiarly successful nan wellness service.

Back successful December 2018, Conservative wellness caput Matt Hancock banned nan NHS from buying caller faxes and ordered a complete phase-out by April 2020.

His promise to "axe nan fax" was repeated by his six successors successful nan role, including Streeting. Yet still they clung on.

In 2024, Streeting committed connected 5 Live to return wrong a twelvemonth pinch an update connected his ngo to eliminate what he erstwhile described arsenic "antique technology".

"One is 1 excessively many," he said. "I'll travel backmost successful a year's clip and show you wherever I've sewage to."

Now he has revealed nan standard of nan problem.

"Obviously they're not successful dense use, but they will beryllium sending, because immoderate of these trusts are multi-sites, immoderate of them department-to-department, truthful it's for illustration occasional usage of things for illustration that."

Elsewhere a number of trusts person fax machines successful retention arsenic an emergency backmost up successful nan arena of different forms of connection going down.

Streeting added: "Across nan NHS, what is absorbing is that wherever we've still sewage fax machines, they're successful cupboards.

"The different spot of pushback I sewage from nan strategy was we still request immoderate fax machines for a world of cyber information and cyber attacks, because if location is simply a strategy problem, we request to beryllium capable to whip them retired of nan cupboard truthful we tin still communicate.

"And again, I thought that was a reasonable explanation.

"But it does mean that having first made this promise six wellness secretaries ago.

"If you're listening, Matt Hancock, your promise has yet been fulfilled by nan NHS, arsenic acold arsenic I'm concerned."

Listen to Matt Chorley unrecorded from Westminster, weekdays from 2pm connected BBC Radio 5 Live.