Is it really very naughty to text from a hospital bed?

[Racers]

Asking as sis is going in for an op and wondered if I could text her in addition to using the phone system (which is expensive!)
Confession time - when I was in hospital with DD I couldn't see any 'no mobile phone' signs so I sent a couple of texts in the middle of the night when I was feeling pretty crap. Too late to do anything about that, but I won't do it again (or rather encourage her to) if it's said to be bad.

The problem with "considerate use" fairyjay, is that people just aren't considerate nowadays.

When I had my DS I was in a bed next door to a woman who had a portable TV with Jerry bloody Springer on at 2AM. People like that simply wouldn't understand what normal considerate use is.

I'm a nurse and ask people to use their phones in the corridor, i think it's all about consideration for others, tbh have never come accross any equipment that has been interfeared with by a mobile.

My sis and I are deffo considerate people and she will have her own room (as on hubby's work's insurance so private .

I would have been thoroughly p*ed off if that had happened to me, Caligula. It's why I was desperate not to be on a ward, in fact wanted a home birth but that's another story. Luckily I got a side room and just kept myself to myself - in denial about being in the hospital I think!

Yes, M2S is right, although similar machines could be used in a theatre, thats not to say they often are though. But best to be cautious. You need to be quite close to the machine though. I think when the phones came out everyone was generally suspicious of them and there was a worry that they could interfere with equipment. For example when your phone rings and the radio buzzes, that is interference. But over the years it seems to have become apparent that there is only very few items it interferes with. On a normal ward environment it isn't a problem. But the old 'Oh you can't uses your phone here' has kind of stuck, with both staff and patients/relatives. They are disturbing, and with a difibrillater for example, I wouldn't risk it (thats the shock machine). But that is a rare occurance, and wouldn't matter in a side room. On a ward, you would know about it. I would see how the staff are, and if funny, take the phone under the covers or to the toilet if she is up and about!! (and don't tell them I said so!!!)

I don't see any difference between using the mobile and the bedside phone - except the hospital make a profit out of one and not the other. Do you tell people to use their bedside phones in the corridor? I think people can be equally inconsiderate with any kind of phone.

Yep, I did the same as soon as a free room came up - the midwife was brutally favouritist and gave me the room because I was a better patient and woman in next bed was a nightmare - she appeared to be under the impression that the whole of the ward stuff revolved around her and that no-one else needed any medical care. Also blithely unaware of the very obvious staff shortage and furious that she wasn't always the first priority for their time, as they obviously didn't realise that she was the most important person on the ward.

She looked daggers at me as I happily gathered up my hospital bag and baby and marched off to the side room!

Some places don't have those phones still. For me, profitability would not come into it.

I believe some hospitals have done away with that patientcall thing and advocate bringing mobiles instead.

I have been told by numerous doctors that it is total rot and that mobiles don't interfere with anything

at my hospital (well the maternity unit anyway) u can use your mobile phones now, not just to text but to talk. this is quite new though i think because when i had DD 3.5 years ago, u wernt allowed to use phones at all, only the payphone.

i used mine when i hospital with both boys
yould have went insane otherwaise

When i was in hospital I asked if I could use my phone and was told yes, as it was a cottage hospital with no electronic equipment (ward next door was the geriatric one with heart monitors etc but they said it was far enough away not to cause a problem).

I dont see the problem with it either

UNLESS its used by someone who thinks they are talking into megaphone and not a mobile phone.

OR, more annoyingly, have the phone set at the absolute loudest setting of text message alert possible.

The Royal Free now has zones where they state it is OK to use a mobile. Having worked there, I can tell you that most of the staff have their mobiles on all the time. Maybe not those operating equipment that WOULD be interfered with. When I had DD in UCH the anaesthetist's mobile rang while I was being cut open! I told him to order me a Four Seasons

apparently there is absolutely no evidence that mobile phones interfere with any hospital equipment.

When I had my daughter, I couldn't get a midwife to come into the room to give me advice, so I phoned my husband (he's a doctor and had been sent home because those were "the rules").

The midwives soon came into the room to tell me to switch the phone off . Total bollocks. I fI have another baby I'll be much more prepared for those bloody midwives on post natal wards.

i was texting people at 6am from the delivery room when i had dd (i'd actually given birth at 3:30 but didn't want to wake people up) . absolutely everyone on the post-natal ward was using them. though the woman in the bed next to mine drove me mad as her alarm kept going off in the middle of the night & for some reason she wasn't there.

Thanks all, for your comments. As DH reminded me last night, our hospital is quite happy to host an antentae (sp?!) on its roof, so he has no qualms about using one (though having said that, he left the building to spread the news about DD - he's prepared to accept that you need to be subtle about it!)