The British government has set aside £4B — or more than $5.7B — for the Department of Health and the National Health Service to go paperless and update its outdated technology, including getting rid of fax machines, according to the BBC.
Additional goals of the funding will be to enable citizens to access their EHRs while also making records accessible to providers, improve cybersecurity, build out new NHS apps and websites, improve home care for patients, and outfit all NHS facilities with wifi.
"We know that proper investment in IT — it's not without its pitfalls — can save time for doctors and nurses and means they can spend more time with patients," UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC.
The NHS plans to be completely paperless by 2018, Mr. Hunt told the BBC.