This story was taken from Saturdays oxford mail. It says that mobile phones could soon be used in the john radcliffe hospital and other hospitals it runs.

Sorry I can’t find a link on the papers website, so I scanned it for you to read.


http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/5659/hospitaljv4.jpg

Maxwell.h

I think it unlikely that mobiles will be allowed on the wards in most hospitals.

mikeinnc wrote on Oct 24^th, 2006 at 10:29pm:

Highly unlikely - they have no money to spare.

There's no need anyway. They have concession contracts of 15 years or more which include the 'exclusive provider of telephone services' clause, any variation to which would require compansation for lost revenue, and there are other reasons for banning mobiles in wards.

The administrators were more than happy for phone, TV, radio, and internet services to be provided at zero capital and running cost to the hospital - apart from the legal costs, and the electricity.

Quote:

True, but only within clinical areas including wards. The DH Patient Power Review Group has issued guidelines that say that a blanket ban is neither neccesary nor enforcable. But every now and then a journalist or politician is fed incomplete and inaccurate information and thinks they've uncovered something new. The point of the guidance was that there are areas within hospitals where the use of mobiles is not undesirable, not that there no areas where the use of mobiles is undesirable which is what press reports usually imply.
The quote about 'one of the companies' being in discussions with the DH is curious because (a) the three biggest companies are in discussion with the DH (not sure why Patientpal isn't included), and (b) it's of little relevance in Wales.

Had to take my mother into hospital today.

OH and I obeyed the notice on the door and switched off our mobiles as we entered.

The first person we encountered in the corridor was a Doctor - who nearly knocked us flying because he was studying the floor as he marched along talking into - you guessed it - his mobile phone!

Dave wrote on Oct 25^th, 2006 at 1:57pm:

The business plan - over ten years ago - did not accurately predict several trends in both public health care and telecommunications. But in truth Patientline had liitle choice in the size of the bite once the government saw the opportunity to provide a telephone and TV at each bedside at no cost to the NHS. Every major hospital in England was required to enter into a contract with a licensed provider within four years, which meant that all of the companies had just one now-or-never chance to win each contract. Even though each contract has to be re-awarded after twenty or more years, the chances that many hospitals would entertain the prospect of disrupting wards twice by having one system removed and another installed are slim.

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Indeed. And that's the point of view that politicians and the press focus upon. But until they suggest realistic ways of repaying the borrowings that had to be made for the capital costs and of paying the wage bill - let alone pay dividends to the shareholders - it's never going to result in lower charges.


bbb_uk wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 7:22pm:
That convention predates Patientline and mobile phones. 

pw4 wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 8:27pm:


Insist on the call price being lowered, let Patientline line go bust as a result and then the government can acquire the assets of the bankrupt company for a song from the liquidators to be operated by the NHS's own Telco.  Its happened before with Railtrack and I'm sure Patientline's shareholders will be just as unsuccessful in trying to sue the government for their losses.

A hard wired huge terminal is years out of date thinking anyway.  All that's now needed is some low power (therefore low interference with hospital equipemnt) local wifi connections so people can deliver the television or radio by broadband and the phone calls too to their own laptop PCs.  Or if they don't have one the NHS can hire them some stripped down simplistic terminal for the technologically illiterate.

My fiance has cystic fibrosis (hey, topical issue) and has to spend a lot of time in hospital, but in the room they give her (she gets a private room on the chest clinic) shes allowed to use her mobile phone. IN gfact she only turns it off in certain areas such as E+E and a few places with specialised equipment. The nurses even tell her where she has to have it off.

NGMsGhost wrote on Dec 1^st, 2006 at 11:05am:

I don't think that sequence of events is likely.

It is undesirable from hospitals' point of view to allow the use of mobiles on open wards, and as long as that is the case the clause in their Patient Power concession agreements requiring them to ban mobile phones on wards will apply.

If Patientline or any of the other Patient Power providers became insolvent I can't imagine any other company taking a chance on entering the business. This would leave patients with no telephone and TV facilities, and so it is in the Department of Health's interest to avoid that scenario.