Welsh hospitals get mobiles

It looks like the ban on mobile phones in hospitals is gradually crumbling. According to the BBC, another health trust has decided to remove a ban on phone use in hospital buildings, saying that it’s discovered devices can only affect medical equipment if very close to it.

The Beeb says that North East Wales NHS Trust’s total ban on video and cameraphone usage will remain and that hospital patients and visitors will have to keep their phones on silent, and switch them off if hospital staff tell them to.

I was under the impression that hospitals have long known that it was fairly unlikely mobiles would monkey around with their equipment and just kept a blanket ban on mobiles in place for etiquette reasons: after all, if you’re recovering from some terrible disease, listening to a Crazy Frog ringtone over and over again isn’t exactly going to speed your recovery.