Mobile phones allowed in hospitals

27^th September 2010 - Mobiles used to be banned in hospitals - in case they interfered with equipment, patient recovery and to allow hospitals to make money from premium rate bedside phones. Now, the rules are being relaxed in Wales.

Patients will be allowed to make calls from ‘designated areas’, such as day rooms, but typically not from their beds. However, a Welsh Assembly Government spokesman told us texting from bed was probably OK. That’s based on health advice issued by the Assembly to children to ‘text not call’ to limit radiation exposure from signals.

New arrangements

It is hoped the move will reduce the cost of phone calls for patients and relatives. Health Boards will determine the exact arrangements that will be convenient for patients - but will also minimise potential noise and disruption for other patients.

In some NHS hospitals, patients have to pay premium rates to use bedside equipment to phone relatives and are charged when they receive calls from their relatives and pay to watch TV. The Welsh Health Minister has also decided that current contracts with providers of hospital phone and TV systems should not be renewed once the contracts end. In the meantime, charges will be displayed more prominently.

Health Minister Edwina Hart says in a statement: “We know that most patients and relatives want to use their personal mobile phones to keep in touch. Today’s announcement will give people the choice of which phone they want to use and it can keep costs lower for patients and their families.

“Patients will need to be mindful that hospitals are a place for them to rest and recover after an operation and they must therefore be respectful of other patients when using mobile phones, even in the designated areas.”

Rest of the UK

NHS Scotland agrees that a total ban on the use of mobile communication devices in healthcare buildings is no longer considered appropriate.  It does stress that mobiles still need to be switched off near critical care or life support medical equipment.

Consideration should be given to designating specific areas where patients, visitors and staff can use their mobile communications devices, thereby ensuring there is no risk of interference with critical medical equipment.

In England, the Department of Health says the assumption is that patients will be allowed the widest possible use of mobile phones in hospitals, including on wards, where the local risk assessment indicates that such use would not represent a threat to patients' own safety or that of others, or their privacy and dignity, or the operation of electrically sensitive medical devices.