I hate Fax Machines and people who try to operate them.

I have been trying for several days to get one doctor office to fax something to another doctors office.

A freaking week to send a fax that takes all of 5 minutes.


it goes like this:

Doctor 1: I will fax a referral to you for Doctor #2.

Doctor 2: (next day) We never got a fax.

Doctor 1: (call back) we will remind her to send the fax.

Today 5 days later:

Doctor 2: We Still haven't gotten a fax.

Doctor 1: We sent the fax on 4/2/2015... we will send it again.

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I could have driven to doctor #1 and picked up referral for doctor # 2 and driven it there in 15 minutes.... but noooooooooooo it has to be faxed from the doctors office...it can't be hand delivered.


Sometimes I hate technology, but more importantly I hate people trying to use technology who have no idea whats involved.


I see two scenarios:

1. Doctor office #1 is lying and never sent a fax.
2. Doctor office #1 sent fax and doctor office #2 never received it.

I almost want to drive down to my bank and fax the second dr office from there just to see if they get it. I suspect that #2 is either out of paper or there is something wrong with their fax machine.

5 days = 120 hours wasted when i could have driven it myself in 15 minutes.


If they don't receive it by this afternoon, I may totally lose it LOL

I am done ranting now...thanks for reading lol

Its medical, time = money (your money)

The irony that have the money to upgrade everything a million times over is not lost...

Wifey works in a doctors office so i present the more likely scenarios 3 and 4

3. Dr 1 doesn't know how to use the fax machine or thinks it is beneath them and delegates it to one of the office staff who he happens to see in the hallway but is the laziest person working there and she sets the fax down and forgets about it.

4. Dr 2 did get the fax but is waiting for someone to bring it to them when its probably sitting at the bottom of a stack somewhere because like Dr 1's office, there are people who put things in piles and just forget about them.

I get to hear all sorts of stories from the inner workings of doctors offices

a reply to: RickinVa

Here's an easy solution.

Ask the doctor's office to Fax it to your email address instead. Then you can print the document.

~Tenth

People who use fax machines:

1) Insert document into fax machine
2) punch in number and hit "fax"
3) paper goes in, is scanned, and faxed
4) paper comes back out the other end
5) user thinks "oh, it spit it back out- it must not have worked..."

...you know, because it converts the paper into electrical signals and sends it.
Actual troubleshooting with a fax machine user.

FACE >> DESK

Here in the UK it is similar.

I think it is odd that health (a priority) has been sidelined in this day and age because of admin / skewed ethics.

We have the NHS, the national free system to which citizens are entitled, and used by the majority. There are village /town/ community GP practices that used to be ran by the family doctor, they got to know the parents, their children and seen them through from birth to adulthood and procreating etc, they knew the health history of each individual and it worked holistically, proactively and preventatively.

These days the GP's are all locums so you rarely see the same GP twice, ever, they are mostly foreign and there is a language barrier, appointments are on an 'emergency only' basis where you can only discuss an issue within a 5 minute appointment and only if it is urgent, if it isn't an emergency a special appointment has to be made which could mean waiting weeks.

Referrals to hospitals and specialists sometimes takes months, operations sometimes longer, sometimes patients opt for overseas operations because it is quicker than waiting for UK operations, faxes sent to pharmacies for prescriptions sometimes do not appear, appointments sent via post for hospitals takes weeks, sometimes sent to the wrong address and the call to rearrange numbers unavailable, if it doesn't suit and you cannot rearrange due to their incompetence to answer phones, they cancel the referral, there are MSM reports of people waiting days in corridors in A&E, unseen and uncared for.

Meanwhile even though the NHS is in crises it has been allowing health tourism where anyone from anywhere came and got free healthcare, even relatives from wherever of those here on asylum / immigration that do so purposely for the free healthcare and operations they cannot get in their own country.

Surely health should be a government priority and all the incompetent procedures and systems reviewed and updated.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

The second doctors office will only accept a fax from the original doctor... otherwise I could have driven it there in 15 minutes and hand delivered it myself.

PCLoadLetter...what the f**k does that mean?!

a reply to: RickinVa

Wow you still use fax machines???
The corporate world I live in uses scanners and email these days...fax machines?! Lol Nearly spat my beer out then laughing!

a reply to: grainofsand

My GP uses faxes, that is how they send prescriptions to pharmacies, they all do in this town, protocol, I believe.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth
Scanned Email from GP to hospital/other healthcare department here in the SW of England...fax machines? Every fax costs money for the paper and the charge for the transmission, but emails are the cost of the internet access alone. What a clumsy and costly way of doing things lol.

a reply to: grainofsand

It is unreliable and outdated but used for GP to pharmacy prescription sending, perhaps because of the potential for misuse. I believe they use email for some things though I recall being referred to hospital for a test recently and the receptionist said they a have to do the letter, which takes a week to do and send to the referrals at the hospital, there should be standard instant referral forms sent online, just an example of an inefficient system.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

I am glad the system in my local NHS trust embraced the cheap as chips email idea, wow, must cost a fortune sending all those individual faxes, and also in needlessly wasted paper.
Do they still make that horrible data-screeching sound, like goin online in 1996? Lol, I haven't heard or seen a fax machine for years, genuinely shocked that UK public services are still wasting money on them, but I only have experience of my own corner of the land at present, but I remain pleased that even us in the rural local yokel SW of England have pretty much moved on from fax machines lol

a reply to: grainofsand

It isn't something they use everyday as far as I know, it is only if a prescription given out to the person isn't available for example at a particular pharmacy, the GP sends a new prescription with a new medication specifically to a particular pharmacy for collection, instead of going to the surgery and collecting a new prescription for something else in person, they 'fax it over'. It used be used a lot in the 90's when I worked in Mental Health housing, less now but I guess it isn't on email as it is too risky perhaps.

This isn't a backwater either, Ox/ Wilts border, good area, generally it is progressive but IMO the NHS systems generally need updating, I have some insight into them from work and a lot or errors have occurred from their inadequacies.

Problem resolved.... I went to the bank and sent them a test fax.

Drove to Doctor office # 1 to get copy of referral in hopes that would work.

Drove to Doctor office # 2.... oh gee guess what? They suddenly found my fax after 5 days.

Sad thing is.... closest appointment at Doc# 2 is 2 weeks out.

a reply to: RickinVa
I feel for you. One day those pesky fax machines will be obsolete.

It never got sent .. most likely the doc was busy shagging the nurse in the exam room between handing out big pharmas wonder drugs and golfing ..

Who's your doctor, Ben Casey? Fax! Whats next mimeograph? LOL!

Satans Tool on earth.

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Satans Tool on earth.

Or is Satan on Earth a tool?