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| Thread ID: 98110 | 2009-03-11 18:33:00 | Use of cell phones in public hospitals | R.M. (561) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 755618 | 2009-03-11 18:33:00 | My husband is shortly to go to Dunedin Hospital for a couple of procedures. The info handbook tells me that the use of cell phones on not permitted where medical equipment is used. Why is this? What medical equipment are we talking about? What range are we talking about? I have had conflicting information about this from hospital staff - so your reasoned comments would be appreciated. |
R.M. (561) | ||
| 755619 | 2009-03-11 18:56:00 | Pacemakers, sensitive electronic equipment... | Renmoo (66) | ||
| 755620 | 2009-03-11 19:16:00 | Don't people walk around in public with pacemakers? Therefore anyone with a cellphone around them would interfere if they really did, wouldn't it? | --Wolf-- (128) | ||
| 755621 | 2009-03-11 19:29:00 | Just been in hospital for four days. Had no problems using my cell phone. I actually spent 2 days in a private hospital and 2 in a public with no problems in either or questions asked. :) |
Trev (427) | ||
| 755622 | 2009-03-11 21:21:00 | They don't like it for the same reason that you are not permitted to keep your cellphone on when on an aircraft . It interferes with and causes problems with sensitive electronic equipment . Having said that, after spending six days in hospital myself at the end of last year I asked if I could use my cellphone a couple of times a day and the nurses said I wasn't supposed to but it was OK for five minutes each time, providing I turned it off in between uses . That was in a private hospital . On the other hand several years ago a family member was in a public hospital and was told to turn his cellphone off and keep it off during his stay . I would suggest that your husband ask if it is OK to use his . |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 755623 | 2009-03-11 21:57:00 | I would think it would be more of an annoyance factor than an interference factor. Some people just use them anywhere and everywhere and can be loud and annoying with them, thus a great reason to ban them IMHO. | Bantu (52) | ||
| 755624 | 2009-03-11 22:07:00 | The Veterans' Administration Medical facilities in the US have decided that cellphone interference with hospital equipment is bunk and removed all restrictions . The only proviso is that you respect patient privacy and not use their names in earshot of other patients and if medical procedures are being discussed it be done in a soft voice and some modicum of security to not alarm other patients and relatives of patients . Electrical interference is a hoax - just like earlier on people thought that the incandescent light bulb would render your horses, goats and family members sterile and make your chickens cease laying eggs . Come to think of it - don't cellphones do that too? Render sterile, that is? Now - on airlines is a totally different scene . If some lout has his cellphone in use and you are a few rows away, you can still hear everything they are saying and what the other party says too . Beating one such person about the head and shoulders with their own cellphone is a licensed act and justified by FAA rules and regulations . Bother the electronics? No . Bother the other passengers? Yes - but just for a short while . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 755625 | 2009-03-11 22:19:00 | I suspect that electronic devices on aircraft are used as a scapegoat to explain any problem that doesn't have an obvious answer. The cellular phone system however wasn't designed to have handsets flying above hundreds of cell sites at high speed. | PaulD (232) | ||
| 755626 | 2009-03-11 22:46:00 | I suspect that electronic devices on aircraft are used as a scapegoat to explain any problem that doesn't have an obvious answer . The cellular phone system however wasn't designed to have handsets flying above hundreds of cell sites at high speed . I kinda wondered about that . I get solid five-bars when I'm flying and wonder how the towers differentiate or decide which tower I am to use as they all see me very well . Good programming I guess to iggy multiple throughputs and concentrate on just one of me . I really don't like to repeat myself . <ewww! that was a joke! "Repeat myself" - get it?!?> |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 755627 | 2009-03-11 23:16:00 | I suspect part of the cellphone-use-while-flying issue relates to billing . Difficult to apportion charges to the various carriers when the signal is only being passed through each repeater for a fraction of a second while a plane is flying above at 500mph (especially in more advanced countries than NZ, where there are many more than two carriers- and those carriers use the same technology) . . . |
johcar (6283) | ||
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