Fax machine - yes or no

[TheSnowFairy]

I don't use a fax machine, ever. There isn't one at work either.

My Dr has just asked me to fax over my request for a repeat prescription Seemed surprised I didn't have easy access to fax.

So, do you ever use a fax machine - yay or nay?

Once when our emails weren’t working, it must have been 100 years old, I think operating a spaceship would have been easier

Also this sounds stupid but I found them very user friendly as you hear it coming and the deal with the hard copy straight away. For some reason getting patient notes faxed felt like a lot less hassle than getting an email, opening an attachment and printing it off. I can't explain why though!

I read somewhere that the NHS is now the biggest purchaser of fax machines. It's bizarre.

One of my first tasks as a medical student was send some faxes from the ward to the pharmacy. I was as I'd never come across this bizarre machine before! That was about 13 years ago...

If anyone wants, I can also show you a picture of the machine I have to use to dictate my letters onto, complete with tiny cassette tape

The DWP also use faxes; we are often asked to send our tenants to the job centre to fax sick notes across!

I think it's probably been about 10 years since I last used a fax machine. I think our printer/photocopier/scanner-thing (technical term!) at work can send faxes but I've never actually sent one - We occasionally receive 'spam' faxes through it though.

About 6 yeas ago, I work in a very niche aspect of financial services. But even then it was sent off the colour printer in the office..

I have a fax machine at work precisely for the reason the OP quotes. I deal with hospitals and GPs and they always want to fax notes, referrals etc. back and forth. They seem to hate using e-mail.

Faxes have been largely replaced by email in most places. We don't even keep a fax machine at work anymore. Nor does DH's office, which is much larger and pretty international.

There are secure email systems. I get some where an account and password is required to open them, and the attachments cannot be edited (often pdf files, but I think there are other ways too).

You can make a word document more secure by printing it and scanning it so that you have a pdf to send.

The medical establishment does seem to cling on to fax machines though.

I use a fax in work everyday. I work in Healthcare in Ireland and much communication is either done by fax or letter. Email referrals for some department are not accepted by email. Many pharmacies will accept a faxed script but not an emailed one.

I wonder if GDPR will bring back the Fax?

It's probably a big conspiracy to sell a load of back stock of fax machines.

However I do miss the days when I would send a fax to the nickelodeon channel and they would read them out on air! I got loads of presenter autographs in the post after requesting them by fax! (I was 7!)

NHS worker here too.

I use our fax regularly!

no...ive never actually seen one (22yo). I use a scan app on my phone to send fax-like images of forms etc.

Fax

Checks what decade we're in.

No I Haven't used one in about 15 years.

I got married last year & my PayPal is the only thing still in my maiden name as the form has to be sent by fax & I can't find anywhere to send one from. My office is on a large industrial estate & none of the other 30 business with offices there have one either (I've enquired to all of them). They won't accept scan & email or postal copies. WTF is that all about, they're an internet business

I'm NHS where we regularly use modern technology such as faxes and pagers, because the 90s now!

@greenapples
Using a scanner with integral fax machine will work but it must be connected to a phone line directly. Alternatively a scanner then into your computer and use an 'email to fax' third party, where you send the email and they convert it to fax format and send it. There was a MN question about doing this a few weeks ago.

No. The last time I had to use the fax machine at work, no-one knew how to work it and it eventually turned out it was broken. I ended up going to the business upstairs and asking to use theirs!

Knew I'd seen it somewhere!

www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/Health-Care-News/digital-doldrums-nhs-remains-worlds-largest-purchaser-of-fax-machines

I'm a solicitor and have to use fax daily to communicate with most of the well known mortgage lenders!

Solicitors also share their firm's account details with one another by fax because, as explained by another poster above, emails can be intercepted and tampered with and faxes are more secure.

Way back in the dim and distant past, we had software for sending faxes on our first PC. We used it just once - it was such a pain that we never used it again.

Another NHS worker here. Our trust has just switched all our faxes off -about a month ago. [modern]

my first (and only) purchased fax machine was over a thousand pounds back in the 80s. It was useful at times, and got me a better job in 1990 but when it died, and I was given another, I have had no reason to use the replacement in 10+++ years.

You might find the Library or a photocopy shop has a fax machine and will charge you 50p or a quid a sheet (I am guessing, I have no idea what they might charge but rip-off anyway given it would only be a short phone call). or go to the surgery.

My local surgery lets me request repeat prescriptions online, and (in the past) make an appointment to see GP (but appointments are like gold dust and I complain on the infrequent visits that an online appoinment system is useless if it never has any available appointments shown!

FWIW, I had to write a room booking system over 30 years ago, when I worked in education so maybe I am a bit critical of poor booking systems...

For instance, the doctors' system used to give a blank screen when there were no slots and now says "No appointments available" so at least it shows it is working even if it is f* all use as far as getting an appointment.

It just bugged me to think it didn't report "none available" before.

Yes most days at work. It's how we get our job cards sent from the duty crew management to our location. And how we sent and receive correspondence to and from the likes of HR, Rosters, Pay bills etc. In my place it's either phone or fax, we are so 1990s.

I'm baffled by the security aspect.
We regularly have a company try to fax us with information. Our landline is 1 digit different to the number they want. When we had babies in the house I considered buying a fax machine off ebay just to stop the retries. Now I pick it up and bellow FUCK OFF! to the machine. DH rings them but they never learn.

I used one once or twice around the turn of the century in my student job... working in the NHS

I've never needed to use one in my teaching career even though it took a few more years for schools to catch up with email addresses for all staff.