Why is the NHS still using snail-mail?

[Northerner]

On Christmas Eve, I received two snail-mail letters from the local hospital where I'd had day surgery to remove three nasty lumps a month before. One told me that one of the lumps had not been fully removed. It was dated 12 December, 12 days before I received it. The other was an appointment for me to see the surgeon about this on 29 January. It was dated 20 December, four days before the letter arrived. The hospital is about three miles from my door.

Both these letters seemed sort of urgent to me and I was amazed that any hospital should hand them to the tender care of the Royal Mail in the run-up to Christmas. This is the 21st century, isn't it? But, then I remembered that the NHS does not believe in email as a viable mode of communicating between clinicians and patients.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/healthcare-network/2013/feb/18/nhs-letters-email

 

[pgcity]

I think the problem is security of patient confidential information.

 

[LeeLee]

Whilst thee NHS are able to SEND email securely, once it's outside the NHS system it's unsecure. Is Hotmail or Gmail or any of the others absolutely guaranteed hack-proof? Or can the sender be sure that every recipient has password-protected their home broadband? Although the postal system can't be 100% reliable, at least it's an offence to steal from it - and any thieves are in this country.

 

[margie]

There are still some people who don't have e-mail and have to receive letters by snail mail, and yes its true that e-mail is not secure it can pass through many servers and if any of them are insecure the e-mail could be accessed.