Why the rules on use of mobile phones in hospitals should be reviewed

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Earlier this week the government relaxed the ban on the use of mobile phones in hospitals. I’ve now written to the chief executives of the Whittington, North Middlesex and Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust (TPCT) calling for an urgent review of their policies.

Allowing the greater use of mobile phones will allow patients to avoid costly in-house phone services that often charge near premium rates for making and receiving calls.

Some of our local hospitals already have progressive policies on mobile phone use, but I hope they will seize this opportunity to review their policy and give patients the greatest freedom possible to stay in touch.

Of course there must continue to be sensible restrictions to preserve tranquillity and protect privacy. However, I think it’s easy to underestimate the holistic benefits of being able to receive a goodnight text from a loved one when you’re ill.

0 thoughts on “Why the rules on use of mobile phones in hospitals should be reviewed”

  1. Yes. FULL STOP. We should also have the democratic right to ask for the mobile numbers of nurses, as a form of good practice 🙂

  2. Yes. And judging by a few hours I spent accompanying someone in a ward today, patients have taken things into their own hands. Following the government announcement they are ignoring the notices forbidding the use of mobile phones.

  4. Judging by the reports over the last few months, the company with the franchise to operate patient phone call and TV systems has a seriously flawed business model – but it wasn’t flawed when they started, or so it appeared: they should not have trusted the public sector to continue to allow them to milk the customers. It is reported that the company had to fund expensive infrastructure to provide phone and TV services, and they could now be in serious trouble. With this relaxation of the rules – excellent for the patients and their relatives and friends of course – govt has done a U-turn that may well open them to a large compensation claim as well as causing the collapse of services for those who rent TVs and do not have mobiles – something for Burning Our Money to look into. (A friend reported that, while in hospital for a short time, he was given a smart card with some value on it – it seems that, when a patient leaves before using all the credit on the card, the ward staff collect the card and then give it (with unused credit) to other patients, thus ensuring that the supplier doesn’t make windfall profit from unused entitlement.)