A huge mast put up in hospital grounds already has one mobile phone transmitter and receiver on it and is attracting interest as a site for more.

The 55-metre mast at Colchester General Hospital is home to an Orange base station.

Now BT Cellnet has put in an application to use the mast and other operators are expected to follow suit.

A spokesman for Essex Rivers Healthcare today reassured people the mast and base stations met all relevant guidelines.

"If there was any question it was going to jeopardise the Health of patients or staff or have an effect on equipment we wouldn't do it," he said.

He said technical staff had carried out stringent tests to make sure everything was safe.

The new mast stands next to an old one which was used for hospital pagers and as a transmitter for the Essex Air Ambulance communications system.

Since Christmas the old mast had also had an Orange base station on it, but the mast is due to be dismantled this week as its structure is wearing out.

A replacement mast could have cost the trust as much as £50,000 to put up, but it was built at no cost by Westmore Communications from Sawston, Cambridge.

The company will now run the mast - which carries out the same important functions as the old mast - and pay rent to the trust.

Rowan Jackson, owner of Westmore Communications, said it was not alien to have mobile phone base stations at hospitals and they were in operation at Guy's and Addenbrooke's.

Myland Parish Council is due to discuss the implications of having mobile base stations on the mast at its meeting on Wednesday.

The Essex Rivers Healthcare spokesman said: "Mobile phone masts are a sign of the 21st Century and we've got to live with them."

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