Shropshire's hospitals to stop using outdated fax machines later this month
The county's emergency hospital trust will stop using fax machines later this month it has confirmed - after the Health Secretary revealed it was one of only three in the country still using them.
Back in 2024 Wes Streeting said that he would phase fax machines out of the NHS within a year.
Earlier this month he delivered an update on the pledge, hailing significant progress, but not quite 100 per cent success in his mission.
The Health Secretary revealed three trusts were still using fax machines, with one of those being Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
Speaking to the BBC he said: "I'm happy to report that having gone away and scoured the NHS for evidence of fax machines being put to use, of the 205 NHS trusts we have in the country, only three are now using fax machines for everyday use, which are Leeds, Birmingham and Shrewsbury and Telford."
Now SaTH has now confirmed it will be stopping the use of the machines - by the end of the month.
A spokeswoman for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We can confirm that the final two fax machines, used in our sterile services department, are being decommissioned by the end of January 2026. Our teams are prioritising the installation of new equipment to meet the national ambition.
"We have an exciting multi-million pound digital transformation programme underway, which will support our staff to improve care through more modern tools and ways of working.”
Fax machines were a staple of offices and public sector buildings such as schools, hospitals, and others, to allow staff to copy documents to other locations.
