Does anyone have any information on the effects of Mobile Phone usage in a hospital environment....or know where I can obtain some. Questions like,"at what distance can a mobile interfere with a medical device and what can the effects be", always seem to be asked.Any info would be helpfull. Thanks..Stu.

The MDA have a device bulletin Electromagnetic Compatibility of Medical Devices with Mobile Communications it is DB 9702

A few years ago I experienced an incident in the Hospital whereby a patients parent entered the neonatal unit with a mobile to his ear (unseen by the staff). Every piece of equipment one by one which he walked past down the corridor started alarming until he reached the nursery where his son/daughter was being cared for. He dropped his phone when he was startled by a piece of equipment with a particulary loud alarm. He promptly demanded compensation from the staff for his broken phone which was in pieces and was only seen to have egg on his face when staff dragged him back to the entrance to the unit and showed him the now quite blatent signs on the doors.
The moral to this story is don't let anybody tell you otherwise "Mobile phones do interfere with medical equipment" and precautions such as large notices on entrances to the hospital as well as departments should be displayed. Detectors should also be considered in sensitive areas such as ICU/CCU.

There was a device on the market a couple of years ago which was basically a mobile phone alarm. You screwed it to a wall - near to entrances and close to critical areas - and when it detected a signal from a mobile it gave out a loud spoken message along the lines of "please switch off your mobile phone" ! We didn't install any because people were concerned over the noise level in sensitive areas like CCU, but I thought they would be useful at the entrances.
I'm not sure if I kept the information, but I'll try and find it and post the details on the site.