There is no more anyone needs to know about the strange hybrid of medieval and futuristic that is the British government's technology policy than to stand in the entrance of a major NHS hospital, wearing only a flimsy knee-length gown and whispering a snatched conversation with a friend on a mobile phone. This was my plight when, wheeled into St Thomas's with acute appendicitis, I was informed that I wasn't allowed to use my mobile phone because of "health and safety" considerations. The health and safety considerations of me freezing my arse off were not discussed.
On Wednesday the health minister, Andy Burnham, finally announced that there was "no reason" for a ban on mobiles in hospitals. So why, when I phoned St Thomas's, was I told that the ban was still in place? The answer is a mixture of money and modern manners. In many cases, hospitals - which are responsible for setting their own policy on mobile phone usage - are locked into contracts with commercial providers of bedside phone services which charge patients up to 50p a minute. In its evidence to the Commons health committee last year, Ofcom suggested that some hospitals were still clinging to the ban because they needed the money.
The ban on mobiles, however, is not just about finance. When they are not being accused of frying our brains, mobiles are blamed for fomenting everything from a crime wave to a growth in teenage illiteracy. When those brickbats crumble, our public institutions rely on snobbery. Mobile phones, they sigh quietly, are a nuisance favoured by loud-mouthed oiks. That is why a sizeable minority of pubs, restaurants and leisure centres have banned them.
A more civilised approach to matters of nuisance, annoyance and etiquette would be to ask us to sort them out between ourselves. Allowing mobile phones in the wards would not only be a humanitarian gesture, enabling patients to keep in touch seamlessly with their loved ones. Doctors and pharmacists would benefit too, just as taxi drivers already find mobile phones much more useful than the antiquated walkie-talkies which connect them back to base. Who is the real nuisance now?
· James Harkin's Big Ideas will be published later this year
