Luca Arnaboldi, a tech expert and assistant professor at the University of Birmingham, said he was very concerned by the risks pager use could present to the NHS, adding they were “never meant for privacy”.
“It broadcast messages to a large area – potentially a whole building – but even nationwide, and anybody can receive it as long as they’re on the right frequency,” added Arnaboldi.
“If any information on it were to be private, anybody could be listening to it. It could cause some serious security issues.
“At the worst case, there is an unauditable log of leaked information.
“What’s even worse is we have no idea what somebody could do with this.”
The company which owns and operates the pager network said it provides encrypted paging and secure messaging solutions, with “customers determining how those services are deployed”.
It added that it has “no visibility of, or control over, the content transmitted by its customers”.
It also said its terms and conditions make clear that radio signals may be intercepted, and it advises customers not to transmit sensitive or personal information over radio or public networks.