NHS criticised for use of ‘20th century’ pagers

More than one in 10 of the world's pagers is being used in the NHS, according to estimates.

A new report looking at communications within the National Health Service said around 130,000 of the devices were employed at an annual cost of £6.6 million.

Compiled by digital solutions company CommonTime, the report said pagers were not only limited – they do not support two-way communication – but also costly.

Replacement

Replacing the nearly 130,000 pagers with use of mobile software could save the NHS £2.7 million a year, the report found.

Rowan Pritchard Jones, chief clinical information officer at the St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: ‘Pagers represent 20th-century technology and are a blunt instrument for communication.

‘Apart from a 'fast bleep', doctors