Health secretary calls time on NHS pagers

England’s health and social care secretary has ordered a ban on pagers in the NHS for non-emergency communications by the end of 2021.

All hospitals will be expected to have plans and infrastructure in place to ensure this is possible by the end of September 2020. During the following year, trusts will be required to phase out pagers.

Euan McComiskie, the CSP’s UK informatics lead, said: ‘Pagers are clunky and outdated. Because they have only one provider to support them, they are expensive too.

‘What NHS physiotherapy staff need is appropriate access to a smartphone, with security and audit features.’

The NHS uses about 130,000 pagers at an annual cost of £6.6 million. More than one in 10 of the world’s pagers are used by the NHS.

And because most mobile phone companies have phased out support for pagers, leaving only one provider in the UK, a single device can cost up to £400.

Under Mr Hancock plans, NHS trusts will be allowed to keep some pagers for emergency situations, such as when wifi fails or other forms of communication are unavailable.

In most situations, staff will use modern alternatives, such as mobile phones and apps instead. They have the advantage of delivering more accurate two-way communications at a reduced cost.

According to the health department, a pilot project at West Suffolk NHS Trust during 2017 where pagers were eliminated saved junior doctors 48 minutes per shift and nurses 21 minutes on average.

Mr McComiskie said he had seen a programme similar to that trialled in West Suffolk and had been impressed. ‘This was a WhatsApp-type system that allowed people to interact with colleagues and with big electronic patient record systems.’