Laptops and Mobile phones act as vectors for transmitting Hospital infections - increasing usage by staff - minimal cleaning and sterilising

Richard Brady, a research fellow at the Medical Research Council's human genetics unit at the Western General Hospital, EDinburgh stated the bleedin' obvious when he pointed out that MRSA could easily be trnasmitted on mobile phones and laptops.

He found up to 25% of phones ,which do not not come under hygiene restrictions at NHS hospitals – carry infections such as MRSA.

65 % of doctors say they are using mobiles while treating patients. Few - as little as 8% - ever clean their phones.Simultaneously 78 % of health workers surveyed favoured an increase in doctors using mobiles in hospitals to speed up communication between departments and reduce errors on medical records.

The report, in the Journal of Hospital Infection, added the situation "allows the likelihood that healthcare workers touch mobiles during patient care without performing hand hygiene". Scotsman Daily Record

The first review of (what were then called) Hospital Acquired Infections in the UK was -
The Management and Control of Hospital Acquired Infection in Acute NHS Trusts in England 17 February 2000, ISBN: 0105566659 (9 years ago) by the Auditor General Sir John Bourne who was more concerned with the cost to resources than with clinical problems.