The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which issued the advice for the NHS said it was down to individual hospitals to set their own rules and they also suggest that camera phones should not be allowed in hospitals because they can undermine privacy for patients.
In the BMJ, Dr Stuart Derbyshire and Dr Adam Burgess of the University of Kent School of Social Policy say concerns over inference with medical equipment are outdated and cite research which discovered that phones could interfere in a non-harmful way with 4% of medical devices, as compared to 41% for emergency services' handsets and 35% for those carried by hospital porters.
The MHRA published its latest advice in July and said: "It's down to individual hospitals to develop their own rules. We would not recommend a complete ban."
New MHRA regulations say a total ban on mobiles is unnecessary, however, they say phones must be switched off near critical care or life support equipment.
