"As one of the golden rules of hospital visits, the mobile phone ban was the most likely to be obeyed"
Hardly. At the hospital I work at, this rule's adhered to as religiously as our visiting hours and the smoking ban.

Jay, Chelmsford, Essex

Maybe soon petrol stations will stop deceiving us too with the false threat of detonating petrol? Unless they are worried it will interfere with the wireless systems that send the price to the till?

Dave Woods, Newport, UK

It's pretty stupid really, you can ban the phones but it is the signal which supposedly can affect the equipment, and you cannot ban that, at least not the incoming signals which will be present even if you ban the phones!!
They should not be using badly designed equipment anyway!!

Tom, Hull, UK

When people emerge from places where a mobile phone ban is in place, many of them switch their phones on immediately as if they may have missed a matter of international importance.
We've done without them for thousands of years. Is it so much to ask for some peace and quiet when you're ill?

MaxC, London,

How do you disinfect a mobile phone after it's been in a ward with MRSA, with you jabbing the buttons with sticky fingers and coughing and hawking into the mouthpiece? Yuk.

Jay, London,

"trusts should produce a clear written policy on the use of mobile phones" Why? How about "quiet areas" and normal areas? Noise is noise, whether it comes from a tv, a phone, a watch alarm or a belly laughing visitor. I would rather overhear a phone conversation than a live one - you only hear half!

len scapp, oxford,

I'm quite sure that the original ban was one of the Terms and Conditions included in most of the contracts drawn up between Hospital Trusts and those extortionate bedside telephone and TV providers; dressed up as a cynical health concern, to boost profits. So much for the well-being of the patient.

Andy, Liverpool, UK

Again, lack of knowledge by the masses goes a long way to render important scientific data worthless so those ignorant of such data can continue to flaunt the minimal restrictions on mobile use on petrol forecourts. Read the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulation

Mr P Fairhurst, Chester, UK

I believe that the use of mobile phones in hospitals is a good thing as long as it is monitored. Having the phone on 'Silent' is an option, or at least on a low ringing level. Being in hospital can be lonely and not everyone can aford the bedside phone costs so should be alowed to their mobile.

C Wilcox, Bath, England

It's bad enough being on a train with irritating ring tones and unnecessarily loud one-sided conversations all around you. Imagine being stuck with this in a hospital ward day and night. Can't be good for rest and recovery. Silent/vibration mode in daytime and phones off mid-evening.

Paul Armitage, Rochester, UK

How long before signs at petrol stations requiring you to swtitch off your mobile phones are dropped. I absent-mindedly took a call as a walked across a Shell forecourt in Southampton. A staff member came running out in a panic as if I'd just fired up a flamethrower.
It's just an urban myth.

c g nugent, London,

Will hospitals relax the rules? They've grown used to extorting money from patients for phone calls from in-ward phones.

Neil Marshall, Cambridge, UK

when does this take effect? being an overseas relative of a patient who,s been in hospital for 3 months and not being able to be connected to the bed phone has been a nightmare

chris bowler, mandurah, western australia

Though mobile phones do present little danger in hospitals, I sure wouldn't want to be a patient and have to put up with endless ringing. Why not allow mobile phones set to silent mode. If someone forgets, a staff person could ask the person to switch over to silent, kick him out if he refuses.

Mekhong Kurt, B,