Hospital ban on mobile phones to be lifted in weeks

13 April 2012

Patients will be able to use mobile phones in hospitals within weeks after ministers admitted they can be used safely.

Health service trusts banned the phones over concerns that electromagnetic radiation would interfere with medical equipment.

However, guidance from the Department of Health says mobiles can be used - except near some specialist equipment.

It means an end to the bedside calls using private company phone lines which cost patients and relatives up to 50p a minute.

Health Minister Andy Burnham said: "As technology has moved on it is right that we update our guidance on mobile phones to reflect that.

"We recognise that patients and staff should be able to use mobile phones, where it is appropriate to do so and subject to medical and privacy considerations.

"I see no reason for trusts to have an outright ban on mobile phones - especially in communal areas - and our updated guidance will make that clear, although NHS trusts are responsible for formulating their own policy on mobile phone usage."

Last year the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory

Agency advised ministers that mobile phones caused problems only in specialist units such as intensive care or baby units.

A study in the British Medical Journal found that they affected only four per cent of medical devices at a distance of one metre - compared to 41 per cent for emergency services' handsets and 35 per cent for porters' handsets.

It concluded mobile phone interference was "merely an irritheytation and ultimately harmless to the patient".

Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Gateshead East and Washington West, led a campaign against the ban, saying bedside phone systems cost "an arm and a leg".

"People who are in hospital, especially for long periods, desperately need to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones. Anything that cheers them up is also medically useful," she said.

"But we have got to make sure that mobiles are only used where are safe. The other crunch issues are privacy and dignity."

A spokesman for The Patients Association added: "This is good news for individual patients but we have to remember that patients in hospitals are sick.

"We don't want every ward to become like the family carriage on a train.

"As long as the NHS does not take privacy seriously, this could be a problem."

The huge cost of calls from bedside phone lines led to an Ofcom investigation last year.

The Department of Health was told to reassess its contracts with Patientline and Premier Managed Payphones, the two main suppliers.

Investigators said calls to sick friends or relatives cost 79p from a mobile or 49p from a landline.

Patients making calls out paid 10p, compared to a BT rate of 3p.

A spokesman for the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health said: "Patient forums conducted a survey last year and were concerned by the appalling levels of charges that were being faced by patients and their friends and families.

"We are pleased that the ban on mobile phones is to be lifted because anything that will make life easier and cheaper for patients is welcome."

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