Do hospitals have wifi?

C64

C64

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2007
Posts
12,884
Location
London
dongle is the way to go i got one recently think i bought the wrong one in tmobile thought was £1 a day but they have doubled the price to £2 a day

and its complete rubbish lucky if you see over 500k before 1am the upload is always 4mb or more though which is odd
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Jan 2004
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31,993
Location
Rutland
Addenbrookes in Cambridge had free wifi in the restaurant area but nowhere else I've worked does.

They've all got contracts with the company that runs the internet/tv/radio consoles by the beds so I doubt they'd be allowed.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2006
Posts
9,570
Why not? It's our money that's paying for the hospitals.

No, your money is paying for people to be treated and get better. Not to have a browse on the internet at the expense of the tax payers.

Very few hospitals have guest wifi access due to the costs involved (the traffic can not be mixed with staff traffic, so a tunnel between the AP's into a DMZ has to be set up along with a dedicated internet connection). I am putting together a proposal for it where I work at the moment and I assure you, it will be a pay to use at a cost similar to that of cheap hotels.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
2 Jun 2004
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18,423
I think the hospital budget has higher priorities

Don't underestimate the importance of keeping sick people in touch with their loved ones and giving them the ability to manage their affairs, such as banking etc.

It may not be the most important thing, but it IS important.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Mar 2003
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56,791
Location
Stoke on Trent
No member of staff has got WiFi at our hospital and even if they did it is so locked down that it's next to useless.
No News sites, no 3rd party email sites (eg NTLworld, BT), no entertainment sites (my site was blocked last week) and so on.
 
Permabanned
Joined
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0
Why not? It's our money that's paying for the hospitals.

Hospitals are designed to make sick people well again, not to allow free use of entertainment facilities that would put a financial drain on an already struggling healthcare system with little or no benefit to the well-being of the patient overall.

Free-wifi is not something that you would receive at home or indeed at any other institution (Hotels, Pubs, Airports are not free, it is a facility designed to encourage the use of their services and as such is funded, albeit indirectly, by their customers)

The NHS has no such need to encourage you to pay for their services over that of another provider and as such what you are asking is that a service is provided that has no medical benefit over that of funding treatment. As for the basis of contacting loved ones etc. since the advent of Mobile Phones and 3G internet services, you or your family can provide those services themselves much like you or they would have to outside of the hospital environment so that line of argument is moot.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
13 Jan 2005
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On the road
Don't underestimate the importance of keeping sick people in touch with their loved ones and giving them the ability to manage their affairs, such as banking etc.

It may not be the most important thing, but it IS important.

Anyway, if you need to do so, just get a mobile broadband dongle. Just check which provider offers better cover at that hospital in particular.

If it is important for you, that is the way to do it.
 
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