NEWS
NHS banned from buying fax machines
in bid to improve cybersecurity
It is part of the Health and Social Care
Secretary’s tech vision, to modernise
the health service and make it easier
for NHS organisations to introduce
innovative technologies.
NHS is aiming to
digitally transform
Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt
Hancock, said: “Because I love the NHS, I
want to bring it into the 21st century and
use the very best technology available.
T
he NHS has been banned from buying
fax machines as part of plans for trusts
to invest in new technology to replace
outdated systems.
The ban takes effect from January 2019
and fax machines are set to be phased out
“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.
by March 31, 2020. NHS organisations will
be monitored on a quarterly basis until
they declare themselves ‘fax free’. From
April, NHS organisations will be required to
use modern communication methods, such
as secure email, to improve patient safety
and cybersecurity.
“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.”
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O2 sparks outrage among its customers
with connection issues
O
2, one of the UK’s leading mobile network service providers, has
faced a backlash from its customers for failing to provide them with
a data connection. The issue was reported to have been caused by a
software fault identified by a third-party supplier.
data services on the network by the following morning. The issue has
since been resolved after one day and O 2 has assured its customers
that its technical teams will be keeping a close eye on service
performance and are conducting a full review into the cause.
The network provider worked with engineers from telecommunications
company, Ericsson, to resolve the problem which had affected millions
of its customers. “I want to let our customers know how sorry I am for
the impact our network data issue has had on them,” said Mark Evans,
CEO, Telefonica (O 2 ) UK, during the incident.
Evans reassured customers that O 2 teams, together with Ericsson,
were working through the night and doing everything they could to
solve the issue and apologised for the poor experience customers
were experiencing.
Marielle Lindgren, CEO Ericsson UK and Ireland, also commented
saying that the cause of the network issue was in certain nodes in
the core network which resulted in network disturbances for a limited
number of customers across the world, including the UK.
Lindgren said that the faulty software which had caused the issues
was being decommissioned. She said their priority was to restore full
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