§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the technical reasons why mobile phones are prohibited from hospitals. [62704]
§ Ms BlearsThe medical devices agency published a comprehensive device bulletin in March 1997 listing the effects of mobile communications on a wide range of medical devices (MDA DB 9702 March 1997). This research identified that some critical care and life support devices were adversely affected by the radiated fields from mobile phones, particularly if used within approximately 2.5 million of medical devices.
Examples of typical adverse effects are lock up of software driven devices, spurious changes to set parameters, screen interference and interference to displayed electro-cardiographs.
As there are various levels of risk to medical devices associated with the use of different mobile phone systems there is no outright prohibition on the use of mobile phones in hospitals. Trusts have been advised to develop local policies in order to manage the risk particularly in areas where critical care and life support devices may be used.