Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

If I send an important email and want to be sure it's been delivered, I send the email out but with a 'flag' on it that returns to me (the sender) a notification that it has been successfully delivered to the receive address - it's a function of Outlook mail.

You can also request a 'Read' receipt but that of course requires the recipient to read the email and agree to send back to the sender the 'Read' receipt. (I never do this however as I think it's a bit rude!) I do use the delivery receipt quite often as it requires no 'far-end' user interaction.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

More secure than email and solicitors still I believe use them.

My Brother machine is still here though needs caps as the display is very dim.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

The DSN for receipt of mail only confirms that the receiving mail server as received the message. From there is should be delivered to the recipients mail box but you have no guarantee.
Read receipts may not be handled by the receiving email server and in Outlook read receipts can be blocked.

It’s a bit like sending a registered letter to a big organisation, the front desk reception may sign for it but you have no guarantee it will get to the intended recipient.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Yes I noted this too, but...what about GP surgeries??

My impression is that very few surgeries offer their clients an email option but most persist in using faxes. I have my own "dark" view of this, based on the number of faxes that get conveniently lost.

One GP Practice Manger told me that just because my (printed) fax machine journal listed a fax sent to them at a particular time and date, and so too did my line provider bill show the same thing, that these two pieces of info "proved nothing".

Long before Donald Trump, GP Practice Managers had decided which information could be 'fake' if it suits them.

B

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Closed email systems such as MS Exchange can deal with receipts anyway they wish and can even recall mails.
If an email is sent outside of this type of system then those local rules may not be observed.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

They won’t be able to use faxes soon. Part of the GP supply contract is they comply with NHS digital’s regulations and GDPR.

If they cock up, which happens a lot, they will be fined. Big time.

A GP surgery is usually a standard limited company. They did this not for cost savings as some suspect but because they can have commercial regulatory oversight then. Unfortunately GPs found out it was cheaper to hire low rate locums and disappear off to do private work 4 days a week.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Err... conjecture about the worthiness of NHS practices is getting well away from the original discussion on the merits of the fax as a means of communication. I suggest that this thread has run it's useful course.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

The thread discusses why the Government has been forced to step in to ban the use of fax machines by the NHS, not the merits of the fax machine.

B

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Wake up to Money on Radio 5* this morning took a scornful approach to the use of fax machines. Then a few people sent in texts to explain circumstances where faxes were still of use which tempered the scoffing a little. Thankfully, Today on Radio 4 had a more measured approach.

*Apparently this station broadcasts using AM (which IIRC stands for Ancient Modulation) on something called the Medium Wave. Anyone remember that? ;)

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Er, don't they remember when their computer systems were hacked earlier in the year and all stopped working? Pen, paper and fax were all that was left that worked, and that's what kept it going. On that basis it seems like a silly policy not to have a backup, especially one which is as cheap and reliable as fax.

The internet and computers are good toys but it they aren't reliable or secure enough for anything serious.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

They kept faxes due to computer systems that were not compatible between departments and lack of choice of suppliers.
The humble fax machines were clunky but they were more reliable.

I have at times had documents sent to me in a file format I have never seen before.
The solution is to go on line and use a file converter. It is very insecure but idiots that send stuff out like that deserve to be hacked. These sites are free but they harvest your email address to send the converted file back to you and they also have a copy of the document. The humble fax machine is a ready made solution to this problem.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

If a fax machine uses a standard phone line between the two parties ( rather than using a network ) does that not limit on how it can be hacked ? Therefore making it much more secure than email etc

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

The line is easy to hack by simply recording the audio and playing it back into another fax machine. The good thing is that nobody can be bothered to do it these days so it counts as secure. Whom is ever going to bother putting a tap on a fax line when the internet can be hacked without a physical connection.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

So if you wanted to send a very private document to someone, would you not chose a fax as the most secure means?
The likely hood of someone recording across the phone line is pretty remote.
As time progresses and fax machines die out, in the future it might be a very secure way of sending documents!

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

If I wanted to send a very secure document that couldn't be hacked, I would type it on a typewriter using a fabric ink ribbon and send it through the post.

I work for the NHS and it's not that the NHS particularly want to or like using fax machines, its more that when doing anything involving money, the procurement and finance departments are painfully slow at adopting new technology and ways of working.

We have had spares companies actually tell us that as of a certain date they wont be accepting any more faxed orders - it caused all sorts of aggro - because basically we couldn't order parts anymore. So I dare say the NHS are dropping the use of fax machines because the outside world doesn't use them anymore rather than because they particularly want to.

Think of the NHS like a huge liner in the ocean - once it starts moving in one direction it's very difficult to stop and get it to change course.

Cheers

Mike

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

I had a bad experience some years ago when a faxed page from someone-else's consultation - sent on a different day! somehow got interleaved into the faxes relating to me. There was much embarrassment but I never did get an apology, either from my GP or the consultant.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

I got my one and only fax machine in the late 1990s - a 10 year-old Canon which worked brilliantly, and cost all of £2.10 at a local auction.

No internet or e-mail so it seemed amazing at the time. I could dash-off an order to CPC or whoever simply by writing everything down on a bit of A4 and shoving it in the fax machine - no more talking to bored and unreliable telephonists in Preston for me! I still remember the chugging-whirring sound it made and the emerald green glow from the scanner, and the satisfying noise of the thermal paper being guillotined once the transmission report had been printed. And the train times enquiries people would happily fax you timetables and maps if you asked. It even worked as a primitive photocopier.

I can remember a young female teacher in the late 1980s coming out of the school office clutching a huge scroll of thermal fax paper with a big smile on her face. Her partner had just faxed her a bunch of flowers - well, a very good, 6' high drawing of one he'd done.

I last used mine to order a repeat prescription from my GP a few months ago.

N.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Unfortunately such mistakes can also happen with email - in my experience moreso. I have seen plenty of commercially sensitive information that really shouldn't be for my eyes. Texts sent to the wrong number are also not infrequent.

For confidential and serious communications our business still uses the post - often signed for. Old fashioned but it remains an effective method.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

The 9,000 FAX machines being quoted in the current news reports must only be in the core NHS, and not include their contractors like community pharmacies. When I retired from pharmacy IT support two years ago, pretty much all community pharmacies had one, so that's another 14,000 units.

I have it on good authority that that UK community pharmacies kept the Panasonic KX-P2023 dot-matrix printer production-line open for many years.
They, along with some others like the OKI Microline 320 were their mainstay, doing labelling, script endorsing, and reports for nursing homes.

Thank goodness labelling is now universally done with quiet reliable thermal printers like the Zebra GK420d

I would't be surprised if there was still the odd nursing home that still insisted on three-part fan-fold stationary for MAR charts.

Re: Government bans fax machines in the NHS
 

Very early FAX machines had a "Voice Contact" button/feature so I imagine it was part of the Group 3 specification.

Even the humble "BT CF9" portable machine had this feature, but it seemed to disappear after a few years.

The idea was that you could interrupt the FAX session and signal the operator of the other machine to pick up their handset and converse. You could in this way confirm the identity of who was at the machine.

Given the unattended nature of FAX communication it's no surprise that the feature was dropped, but I would be interested if anyone saw it used.

Of course even without the signalling feature, it would still be possible to switch between voice and fax on attended machines with handsets, but it always seems to come as a surprise to the people I have mentioned that to.