NHS Fax Ban Set to Improve Security from 2020

The NHS will be banned from buying any more fax machines from next month as the government looks to upgrade the health service to more modern and secure communications platforms. Health secretary Matt Hancock has also ordered a complete ban on their use by March 2020, as part of a plan to bring the NHS into the 21st century. According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in July, the NHS in England still uses over 8000 fax machines. “We’ve got to get the basics right, like having computers that work and getting rid of the archaic fax machines still used across the NHS when everywhere else got rid of them years ago,” he said in a statement. “I am instructing the NHS to stop buying fax machines and I’m setting a deadline for getting rid of them altogether. Email is much more secure and miles more effective than fax machines. The NHS can be the best in the world — and we can start with getting rid of fax machines.”