NHS still had a 1980s problem hiding inside its modern patient data systems

• Names, dates of birth and organ information were sent to transplant teams.
• NHS Blood and Transplant has reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
• The NHS in England was told in 2019 to stop using pagers by 2021.

NHS has admitted that sensitive medical data belonging to transplant patients was routinely sent over an unencrypted pager network, exposing a problem that sits somewhere between outdated technology and modern data protection.

An investigation by the BBC found that NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) was sending patient names, dates of birth and information about organs being offered or required to hospital transplant teams using pagers. NHSBT has since stopped sending patient information through the system and reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The organisation said it was “deeply sorry” and acknowledged that the messages were not encrypted.

The revelation is particularly striking because the NHS had already been trying to move away from pagers. In 2019, then-health secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS in England should stop using them by 2021.

Yet some parts of the health service continued to rely on the technology.

There is an important distinction here. Pagers themselves are not necessarily the problem. They remain useful in hospitals because their radio signals can reach areas where mobile phones and other systems may struggle, while their long battery life makes them reliable for urgent alerts.

The problem was the decision to send identifiable and highly sensitive patient information through a network that was not encrypted.

The messages went far beyond transplant teams

NHSBT's head of organ transplantation, Anthony Clarkson, reportedly said the organisation used the system because transplant decisions can be time-sensitive and teams need urgent information quickly.

But after being alerted by the BBC, NHSBT acknowledged that the messages represented a data breach.

Clarkson reportedly said the organisation was surprised that the messages were not encrypted and that the vulnerability had existed.

The full scale of any exposure remains unclear. Unlike modern digital messaging systems, recipients on the pager network cannot be tracked in the same way, meaning NHSBT cannot establish whether anyone outside the intended recipients accessed the information or precisely how many people may have been affected.

The BBC investigation also found that the problem was not limited to transplant communications.

Hundreds of messages were sent across a 10-day period by ambulance trusts, hospitals and fire services. Some reportedly contained details about mental health incidents, medication and patients in distress.

North West Ambulance Service and Northern Ireland Ambulance Service were among the organisations using the network. Their messages reportedly included operational details such as addresses, patient ages and medical information. Both said patient names were not included, while the North West service has since withdrawn its pagers and Northern Ireland has largely done so.

That raises a wider question about how much sensitive information can remain exposed when public services continue to operate legacy systems alongside newer technology.

Pagers became popular in the 1980s and 1990s because they were simple and dependable. They receive short messages but cannot send replies, and their low-frequency signals can travel through buildings and areas where other communication systems can struggle.

Hospitals have particular reasons to value reliable radio communication. Thick walls and specialist areas designed to protect people from radiation can interfere with ordinary wireless signals.

But the technology's usefulness for urgent alerts does not necessarily mean it is suitable for transmitting personal medical information.

The NHS had already been warned about the technology

The 2019 instruction to phase out pagers was intended to push the NHS towards newer communication systems, but the continued use of legacy technology shows why replacing equipment across a huge healthcare system is not as simple as switching off an old device.

The Department of Health said that where legacy technologies remain in use, patient information must still be handled securely and in line with data protection requirements.

That is particularly important for NHSBT, which handles some of the country's most sensitive health information while coordinating organ donation and transplantation.

The organisation says it has now taken urgent steps to ensure sensitive information is no longer sent through the pager network and has launched an internal investigation.

The incident does not establish that anyone outside authorised NHS teams actually obtained the patient information. But the fact that NHSBT cannot determine whether the messages were accessed illustrates the difficulty of controlling information once it has been broadcast through an unencrypted system.

For a health service trying to move away from decades-old technology, the issue is therefore bigger than the pager itself.

The real problem is what happens when an old communication system survives long enough to become part of a modern data environment, while the information being sent through it becomes far more sensitive than the technology was ever designed to protect.