NHS doctors ‘forced’ to send scans using Snapchat

NHS doctors are using Snapchat to send patient scans to one another, according to a report that warns it is an “insecure, risky” way of working.

A panel of experts, chaired by Dr Julian Huppert, a former Liberal Democrat MP, said the health service was letting the digital revolution pass it by, forcing medics to find their own “technical fixes”.

The report also revealed that the NHS is the world’s largest purchaser of fax machines, described by the authors as a “dubious title” to hold.

The panel was commissioned to examine the dealings that Deepmind Health, which is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has with the NHS. A project between Deepmind and the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust has recently faced criticism.

On Monday, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruled that the NHS Trust “failed” to comply with data protection law when it provided data on 1.6 million patients to Deepmind. The files were shared as part of a test for an app that can alert doctors to patients who are at risk from kidney injuries.

Last year, Deepmind commissioned a panel of independent experts to look into its work with the NHS.

In their first report, the experts highlighted a number of concerns but they also commended Deepmind for many elements of its pioneering work.

The panel identified 11 “relatively minor” technical vulnerabilities but overall it commended Deepmind Health for its “high level of data security”.

The panel members were less favourable in their assessment of the health service generally.

“The digital revolution has largely bypassed the NHS,” the report said. “Many records are insecure, paper based systems which are unwieldy and difficult to use.”