The Scottish Government will not introduce a ban on Health Authorities across Scotland using Fax Machines.

Local MSP David Stewart, Labour’s Health Spokesperson in the Scottish Parliament has called the refusal to ban or even phase out the use of  fax machines as ‘blinkered’.

In answer to a Parliamentary question by David Stewart on the issue Jeane Freeman Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport said that the Scottish Government has no plans to ban the use of fax machines in NHSScotland.

David Stewart said:

“Health authorities are being left with technology which belongs in a museum.

“This reply is very short sighted and blinkered, leaving Ms Freeman unable to see clearly what’s needed for the future of the health service,” said Mr Stewart.

“It’s a sign of the Government letting things slip over the last 10 years. Services are creaking at the seams and up-to-date technology could help save time and money.”

Mr Stewart believes that NHS boards in Scotland should be banned from buying fax machines and a date should be made for them to be phased out entirely.

He previously asked health boards in Scotland how many had fax machines and was shocked to discover that more than 1,200 were still in use across the country.

The Department of Health in England has now banned the buying of machines and said their use should be phased out by 2020.

This followed a Royal College of Surgeons investigation, which found nearly 9,000 fax machines were in use across NHS England.

Related story: David Stewart MSP calls for the Phasing Out of Fax Machines in the NHS