A STERN warning has being issued to patients using their mobile phones during doctor's visits.

Richard Miller, practice manager at Great Bentley Surgery, in Colchester, expressed his concerns in this month's edition of the community magazine.

He wrote: "Whilst we are happy for mobile phones to be used in the waiting room, using them in consultations is completely inappropriate.

"We hear stories of phones being answered and parents asking to speak to a nurse again as they were not listening to the advice given to their child.

"This not only wastes our precious time, but is extremely rude."