NEWS A blanket ban on using mobile phones in hospitals should end, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) - and medical staff should even be encouraged to take up wireless technology.
The MHRA has issued guidance saying that "developments in mobile technology", and the need for patents and staff to communicate, mean an outright ban on using mobiles is no longer required.
The MHRA recommends hospitals should consider creating special areas where medical staff and patients could use their mobiles, as well as training hospital workers to spot instances where using a mobile could interfere with medical equipment.
Some technologies that are unlikely to interfere with equipment, like wireless networking, could make their way into hospitals in future, the guidance said.
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1. Richard Percival
Is this in fact just a relic of the days when the Crown in the UK could invoke a privilege and ban something without actually having to justify it?EMC (Electomagnetic Compatibility)rules have existed for some time, and are in force throughout the EU, for instance, and used in product testing, whether the product emits Electromagnetic Radiation or might be susceptible to interference, or both. Why did the blanket ban on Cellphones (all of which are "CE" compliant) get introduced in the first place? What processes or devices in hospitals are known to need exemption from the EMC rules? Why are these processes, if they exist, not undertaken within Faraday cages? We should be told!
2. anonymous
So when will they remove the silly ban on mobile phones in petrol stations?
3. ray
im sorry but having spent time in casualty the only ones flouting this rule were the non indigous population .
dont say im racist either worked for 4 and been screwed by 4 upto £10,000 and been screwed by english law . hah yes im being sarcastic.
ps they all said they follow the koran , but not the bite about allah says pay the man before the sweat dries from his brow
4. Brian Naylor
Having had a serious accident a few years back and spent the night in a 2-bed room with another person whose mobile was ringing incessantly (he apparently was some important person I suppose), I can say that mobile phones should be seized before being allowed on hospital premises. It's bad enough the darn things ringing all day in the office, never mind where people are sick and in need of peace and quiet to recuperate. The Mexican churches seem to have the right idea -- wonder where I can buy one of those boxes?