Respite for the leccy leechers at Canberra Hospital

jase! said :

call me paranoid (really, it is ok) but there isn’t a hope in hades I would connect my smartphone of any flavour to one of those units (or the paid for ones cropping up around the place). Unless I can see where my charger is being plugged straight in to a wall outlet I am happier to just let it go flat

You don’t know how USB works. How quaint.

Considering how many i-phones are out there, it’s not too good only having two i-phone outlets per charging station. If this is indeed for the patients to be able to stay connected with family, how wise is it to have to leave your hospital bed, go down the hall to wherever they are installed and then have to sit there and wait for it to get charged [you can’t leave them there, unless you want your phone gone]. If you are in hospital longer than the charge on your phone lasts, you would have already got your own charger organised. If it’s for family, then they wouldn’t need it as they are there to see you already, why do they need to call you? Aren’t you supposed to turn your phone off in the hospital anyway? As for entertainment, if a patient wants to play games whilst recovering, their bed would be a better place to sit, not out in the common areas. Also, repeat trips will be required as games are notorious for chewing battery power in no time at all.
The only benefit I can see of this is for the people in the emergency waiting room, where all you can do while waiting that 3-8 hours is to play on your phone and ring home to complain how long it’s taking.

I was at Canberra hospital Emergency with my Grandpa the other weekend. Between giving updates to both my Mother and Aunty and browsing the web while grandpa was asleep , my battery went from 90% to 10% pretty quick. I was only there for about 5 hrs too. Pretty sure these chargers will be most welcome by the majority of people.

jase! said :

call me paranoid (really, it is ok) but there isn’t a hope in hades I would connect my smartphone of any flavour to one of those units (or the paid for ones cropping up around the place). Unless I can see where my charger is being plugged straight in to a wall outlet I am happier to just let it go flat

You say that now, but I’d run my money if you had been stuck for 3+hrs in a triage system in A&E, your partner was in another hospital in intensive care and you needed to call partner’s parents or some such situation, that kindly provided charger would start to look like a very nice facility.

OLydia said :

My husband had something cut out of his hand Friday. A small artery started leaking blood out of the wound 3am Saturday morning. A Sydney Hospital A and E had us there for 3 hours just to see a Locum for 5 minutes to get a pressure bandage applied. It is the same everywhere. More money needs to go into the Hospitals everywhere.

Agree, but often its the case of how much money for just a small improvement. I don’t know the figures, but health and education tend to be a exponential expenses. Lots of money only gains a small improvement. They need to fix up the whole health system from GP’s to insurance (especially insurance!) to hospitals and expectations and behaviour of society. Just throwing money at the hospital system doesn’t help it.

We have a system where its free for emergencies at hospitals so it gets abused. Insurance is expensive and forced on us, and it provides very little benefit except the privilege of jumping the queue for surgery provided we are willing to pay more cash.

jase! said :

call me paranoid (really, it is ok) but there isn’t a hope in hades I would connect my smartphone of any flavour to one of those units (or the paid for ones cropping up around the place). Unless I can see where my charger is being plugged straight in to a wall outlet I am happier to just let it go flat

Ok hello paranoid. Smartphones can be configured though to charge only. That and the fact it would cost too much and be well out of the act governments IT skill set to capable of spying on peoples phones.

Great idea! I’ve been too often caught out at hospital with a dying phone and no way to recharge.

My husband had something cut out of his hand Friday. A small artery started leaking blood out of the wound 3am Saturday morning. A Sydney Hospital A and E had us there for 3 hours just to see a Locum for 5 minutes to get a pressure bandage applied. It is the same everywhere. More money needs to go into the Hospitals everywhere.

call me paranoid (really, it is ok) but there isn’t a hope in hades I would connect my smartphone of any flavour to one of those units (or the paid for ones cropping up around the place). Unless I can see where my charger is being plugged straight in to a wall outlet I am happier to just let it go flat

Always thinking outside the square is our Kaytee. Here’s an idea, how about reducing waiting times in A&E and elective surgery? Oh wait, what am i thinking, the figures indicate that there are no unreasonable delays. All good business as usual..