Three NHS trusts still using fax machines, Streeting confesses
BBC••world
Key Points:
- Three NHS trusts in England—Leeds Teaching Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham, and Shrewsbury and Telford—still use fax machines for everyday communication, despite efforts to phase them out.
- Health Secretary Wes Streeting reported significant progress, with only these three trusts continuing fax use out of 205 NHS trusts, and Leeds and Birmingham planning to eliminate them within 12 months.
- Fax machines remain in some trusts as emergency backups for communication in case of cyberattacks or system failures, explaining their occasional retention despite being largely obsolete.
- The NHS has been under pressure to end fax use since 2018 when former Health Secretary Matt Hancock banned new purchases and ordered a phase-out by 2020, a pledge reiterated by
