Managed Print & Photocopiers for Healthcare & the NHS
Every hour a clinician spends chasing a printer fault or waiting for a discharge letter is an hour not spent with patients. In the NHS, print infrastructure isn’t an IT issue — it’s a care quality issue.
The sector at a glance
The NHS is the largest employer in Europe and one of the largest publicly funded health systems in the world. With over 1.5 million staff[1] working across acute trusts, community services, mental health providers, ambulance services, GP practices and integrated care systems, it operates at a scale and complexity that few organisations can match. Annual expenditure exceeds £180 billion[2], and every pound of it is public money subject to intense scrutiny from regulators, auditors and the public.
The wider UK healthcare sector — including private hospitals, care homes, dental practices, pharmacies, hospices and clinical research organisations — adds further scale, but shares many of the same operational pressures. Workforce shortages, rising demand, ageing estates, digital transformation targets and tightening budgets are constants across the board. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the ongoing rollout of electronic patient records, and the push toward integrated care all demand that operational processes become leaner, more secure and less dependent on manual intervention.
Print sits right in the middle of this. Discharge summaries, prescription labels, patient wristbands, consent forms, appointment letters, referral documentation, pathology labels, clinical protocols and ward signage are all produced on printers and multifunction devices spread across wards, clinics, theatres and administrative offices. When that print infrastructure is poorly managed — unreliable devices, insecure output trays, uncontrolled costs, inconsistent supply chains — it creates delays, compliance risks and wasted expenditure that healthcare organisations can ill afford.
The challenges healthcare organisations face with print
Patient data on output trays is a breach waiting to happen
In a hospital or clinic, print output often contains highly sensitive personal data — discharge summaries, test results, referral letters, safeguarding records. When documents sit uncollected on shared output trays in corridors, nursing stations or open-plan offices, the risk of a data breach is real and constant. The Information Commissioner’s Office has consistently identified paper-based breaches as one of the most common categories in health and social care.
Unlike IT systems, where access controls and encryption are well established, print devices are frequently overlooked in data security strategies. Yet they handle the same sensitive information. A single uncollected discharge letter in a busy ward can constitute a reportable breach under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Ageing, unreliable devices disrupt clinical workflows
Print failures in healthcare settings don’t just cause inconvenience — they delay clinical processes. When the printer on a ward goes down, discharge letters can’t be produced, prescription labels can’t be printed, and patient flow through the hospital slows. At Northwick Park Hospital, print-related delays were directly affecting patient discharge times — a critical operational bottleneck in an acute trust under constant bed pressure.
Many NHS trusts and healthcare organisations are running fleets of devices well past their expected lifespan, maintained reactively rather than proactively. The result is a patchwork of different manufacturers, models and driver configurations that IT teams spend disproportionate time supporting.
Decentralised procurement drives up costs
In large healthcare organisations — and particularly in NHS trusts with multiple sites — print procurement is often fragmented. Individual departments or sites buy their own desktop printers, order toner independently, and manage maintenance ad hoc. There is no central visibility of what the organisation is actually spending on print, no standardised fleet, and no negotiated supply agreements.
This leads to inflated per-page costs, wasted consumables, duplicated hardware, and a complete absence of management data. CeraCare, operating across multiple care sites, discovered that a fragmented approach was costing significantly more than necessary — a situation only resolved when the fleet was consolidated and centrally managed, reducing its printer estate by more than half.
Compliance and information governance requirements are non-negotiable
Healthcare organisations operate under some of the strictest data protection and information governance regimes in any sector. The NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit, Cyber Essentials Plus certification, Caldicott principles, CQC inspection frameworks and UK GDPR all impose specific obligations on how personal and clinical data is processed — including when it’s printed, scanned, copied or faxed.
Despite this, print infrastructure is often excluded from information governance reviews. Devices without encrypted hard drives, without user authentication, without audit trails — these are compliance gaps that would not be tolerated in an IT system but are routinely accepted in the print environment.
Hybrid and multi-site working creates print complexity
The shift toward hybrid working, hot-desking, and multi-site clinical rotas has made print more complicated. Staff may work across two or three locations in a week — a community clinic on Monday, a hospital site on Wednesday, a home office on Friday. They need to be able to print and scan from any location, on any device, without relying on locally installed drivers or site-specific configurations.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England faced exactly this challenge. Their workforce had moved to a hybrid model, but their print infrastructure hadn’t moved with them. The result was inefficiency, frustration, and unnecessary overhead — all resolved through a modern, cloud-capable print environment aligned with how people actually work.
IT teams are stretched thin and print consumes disproportionate time
NHS IT departments are under enormous pressure — supporting electronic patient records, cybersecurity obligations, network infrastructure, clinical systems and digital transformation programmes. Print-related support requests — driver issues, toner orders, paper jams, device failures, connectivity problems — are low-value but high-volume. They consume time that overstretched IT teams simply don’t have.
How modern print management addresses these challenges
Understanding what you actually need before anything changes
The starting point is a thorough assessment of how your organisation operates: where clinical and administrative staff are based, what they need to print and scan, what devices are currently deployed, and where the bottlenecks lie. We build a clear picture of print usage across wards, clinics, theatres, pharmacies and back-office functions before recommending equipment, so recommendations reflect how your organisation works.
Fleet rationalisation — fewer devices, strategically placed
Healthcare print environments frequently suffer from too many devices, poorly distributed. Desktop printers accumulate in offices, legacy devices linger on wards, and nobody has a complete inventory. Consolidating to fewer, more capable multifunction devices — positioned where clinical and administrative workflows actually require them — reduces hardware costs, energy consumption, maintenance burden and points of failure.
CeraCare reduced its printer estate by more than half while improving reliability. United Response separately reported annual savings of over £29,000. The Royal College of Surgeons of England moved to a streamlined fleet aligned with their hybrid working model, eliminating unnecessary overhead and giving staff consistent access to print and scan facilities regardless of where they were working.
Secure print release to protect patient data
With secure print release, documents only print when the user authenticates at the device — via NHS smartcard, ID badge, PIN, or mobile app. This eliminates uncollected documents containing patient data, prevents sensitive information being left on output trays in busy clinical areas, and creates a full audit trail of who printed what, when. For organisations handling patient records, safeguarding data, clinical correspondence and HR information, this is a practical compliance measure that can be deployed across the entire fleet from day one.
Cloud print management for multi-site and hybrid access
Cloud-based print management eliminates the need for on-premises print servers and allows staff to print from any device — Windows, Mac, iOS, Android — to any enabled printer, at any location. A clinician working across two hospital sites can submit a document and release it at whichever site they’re at. An administrator working from home can queue a print job and collect it when they next visit the office. This was central to the solution implemented at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, aligning print infrastructure with their new way of working.
Scan-to-cloud workflows that reduce paper dependency
Modern MFDs are document workflow hubs. Staff can scan at the device and have documents routed directly to electronic patient record systems, SharePoint, OneDrive, or secure email — with OCR applied to make them searchable. For healthcare organisations still relying on print-sign-scan-email-file cycles for consent forms, referral letters, clinical protocols or HR documents, replacing those manual steps with one-touch scanning saves hours of clinical and administrative time every week.
Predictable, transparent costs
Managed print typically operates on a cost-per-page model. The organisation pays a fixed rate per page printed, covering the agreed toner, parts, engineer labour and maintenance; equipment purchase or lease is charged separately. Service cover follows the agreement; paper, excluded damage and additional or spare consumables may be chargeable. Print and scan network support is a separate subscription. For NHS organisations subject to rigorous financial reporting, and for private healthcare providers operating on tight margins, this predictability makes budgeting straightforward and expenditure defensible.
The outcomes when these changes are implemented
Direct cost reduction
The evidence from healthcare organisations that have moved to managed print is clear. CeraCare reduced its printer estate by more than half, while United Response separately reported annual savings of over £29,000. The Royal College of Surgeons of England eliminated unnecessary overhead by aligning their print estate with hybrid working patterns. These examples show why outcomes should be measured against the organisation’s own starting point rather than treated as a universal saving rate.
More clinical time, less operational friction
When print infrastructure works reliably, clinical and administrative workflows run without interruption. At Northwick Park Hospital, improving the print environment directly reduced patient discharge times — a tangible clinical outcome from what might otherwise be dismissed as a back-office change. When staff aren’t troubleshooting printers, chasing toner, or waiting for devices to come back online, they’re doing the work they were trained to do.
Stronger data security and GDPR compliance
Secure print release, user authentication, encrypted hard drives, automated data deletion and full audit trails bring the print environment into line with the same security standards applied to clinical IT systems. This reduces breach risk, supports compliance with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit and UK GDPR, and provides boards and regulators with assurance that personal data — including patient records — is being handled appropriately across all channels, including paper.
IT and admin burden reduced
When the supplier manages toner, maintenance, firmware updates, driver deployment and fault resolution, internal IT teams are freed to focus on the digital transformation priorities that actually need their expertise — electronic patient records, cybersecurity, clinical systems integration. Print becomes a managed service rather than a constant distraction, reducing help desk tickets and freeing up capacity that is in desperately short supply across the sector.
Environmental credibility
Fleet consolidation, duplex defaults, mono-first policies, secure print release, automated toner recycling and energy-efficient devices all contribute to measurable environmental improvements. The NHS has committed to reaching net zero by 2040 for direct emissions and 2045 for its supply chain. Managed print platforms can report on paper consumption, CO₂ reduction and energy savings — data that feeds directly into Greener NHS reporting, sustainability strategies and annual accounts.
What to look for in a print partner
Healthcare organisations have specific procurement, compliance and operational requirements that not every supplier understands. When evaluating a managed print partner, it’s worth considering:
- Do they take time to understand your organisation first? A supplier that recommends products before understanding the problem isn’t a partner — they’re a salesperson.
- Do they have experience in healthcare and NHS environments? Understanding clinical workflows, patient data sensitivity, information governance requirements and the realities of working across wards, clinics and administrative sites is essential. Ask for references from NHS trusts or healthcare providers of a similar size and complexity.
- Can they meet NHS information governance and security standards? Devices should support encrypted hard drives, secure print release, automatic data overwrite and full audit trails. The supplier should be able to demonstrate alignment with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, Cyber Essentials Plus, and NHS Digital standards as applicable.
- Do they offer proactive support? Remote monitoring, automated supplies, and rapid response times should be standard — not premium extras.
- Can they demonstrate measurable outcomes? Cost savings, usage data, security improvements, environmental impact — the supplier should be able to report on all of these in terms that make sense to your senior stakeholders.
- Can they work within NHS procurement frameworks? Whether your organisation procures through framework agreements, competitive tender, or direct award, the supplier should understand public sector procurement processes and be able to evidence value for money in a way that satisfies audit requirements.
The bottom line
Healthcare organisations can’t afford to treat print as an afterthought. In an environment where patient data protection is a legal obligation, where clinical workflows depend on reliable output, where every pound of public money must be accounted for, and where net zero targets demand measurable environmental progress, print infrastructure is a governance and operational issue — not just an IT one.
The good news is that the solutions are proven, the savings are real, and the outcomes are measurable. Healthcare organisations that take print seriously are reducing costs, strengthening compliance, freeing clinical and IT capacity, and accelerating discharge processes — all from a change that can be implemented without disrupting front-line services.
Sources: [1] NHS Digital — Workforce Statistics 2024, [2] GOV.UK — NHS Financial Directions 2024–25, [3] The King’s Fund — NHS in a Nutshell, [4] Gartner — Market Guide for MPS, [5] Toshiba Tec — CeraCare case study, [6] Toshiba Tec — United Response case study
Statistics cited above are drawn from the sources listed. Illustrative examples and ranges presented elsewhere on this page reflect our operational experience delivering managed print services to UK healthcare organisations.
Is your trust or practice overspending on print?
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