HOSPITAL RIP-OFF SCANDAL

We expose how NHS patients and families are exploited by sky high charges for everyday items

PATIENTS and their families are being ripped off by hospital bosses, a Daily Express investigation reveals.

Trusts are using the sick and vulnerable as cash cows, fleecing them for car parking, shopping, phone calls and even watching

TV. Campaigners say hospital chiefs increasingly see the infirm and their families as commercial opportunities as they struggle to balance their books.

Analysis of the costs of using bedside television sets and telephones, stocking up on food, drink and toiletries in the hospital shop and parking fees shows that the cost of a five-day stay in an English hospital could work out at more than £150.

Revelations of the staggering extent of the rip-off perpetrated upon the ill and their loved ones at their lowest point brought a furious response last night

Tory MP Sir Mike Penning said: “They are using patients and their loved ones as cash cows.

“It cannot be right that the NHS is free at the point of delivery yet patients simply get ripped off.

“As they walk in through the entrance, hospital bosses must see the pound signs clicking up. Their aim is to make money and it simply cannot be right for relatives to be worried about the cost when they are visiting loved ones in hospital. It has to stop.”

Some patients and relatives are now forced to pay as much as £4 an hour to park.

Once they are inside a hospital every day essentials such as toiletries and food are significantly more expensive while those on a ward are forced to pay through the nose to stave off boredom.

Television access can cost at least £7.90 a day while worried relatives have to fork out 50p a minute if they want to connect with a loved one using a beside phone.

The NHS is the envy of the world and has earned a global reputation for first class patient care with doctors, nurses and specialists going above and beyond every day.

Yet concern has been raised at the way money-grabbing trusts use nonmedical facilities as a cynical way of generating extra cash.

The inability of the Department of Health and Social Care to enforce a national standard for things like hospital car parking has seen a freefor-all with trusts setting their own tariffs that in many cases are significantly higher than facilities on the High Street.

Some tied up in farcical private finance contracts employ specialist firms to run and maintain their car parks, issuing hefty fines for overstayers.

In Scotland and Wales parking is largely free but in England visitors and out-patients have to pay up to £4 an hour.

The same people are then hit with a premium for food at some in-hospital shops simply for the privilege of convenience.

But campaigners say that rather than it being convenient that a store is at hand, many users may have no choice because of disability or lack of means to travel elsewhere.

Next week NHS Trusts in England will reveal their end-of-year financial figures but in February they were forecasting a year-end deficit of £931 million – £435million worse than planned.

Dr Ian Campbell, an NHS GP in Nottingham for more than 30 years, said: “Profiting from patients and their relatives is unpalatable at the best of times.

“While I would expect private businesses to be able balance their books and return a reasonable profit, these examples demonstrate a wholly unreasonable approach.

“Hospital is an unhappy environment and being exploited in this way can only add to the distress felt by people who are already at their most vulnerable.” Experts say the true financial picture is actually far worse.

Analysis by the Nuffield Trust think-tank shows the underlying deficit was almost £4billion in 2016/17.

Last night the Patients Association said: “Raising the prices of essential and everyday items in hospital outlets well above what they would cost on the High Street is cynical and highly unfair.

“When people are unwell and in hospital, and therefore unable to go elsewhere with any ease, they should be able to expect retailers not to exploit their situation for profit.”

While hospital budgets have been protected by the Government there is real concern that the health service will be unable to operate as normal in future years under its current funding arrangements.

This week it was revealed the NHS would need an extra £2,000 a year from every household in order to function properly.

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Health Foundation said there was no more room to take from other Government budgets in order to increase health spending and concluded that money would have to come from tax rises.

Experts predict UK spending on health care will have to increase by an average of 3.3 per cent a year over the next 15 years simply to stand still.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have made it very clear that patients, their families and our hardworking staff should not be subjected to unfair parking charges, and we do not condone unfair charges of any kind.

“While NHS Trusts are responsible for these charges and any revenue goes back into frontline services, we want to see trusts coming up with options that put staff, patients and their families first.”

‘Profiting from patients and families is unpalatable’ GP IAN CAMPBELL

FROM its inception 70 years ago this summer, the NHS has provided its service free at the point of delivery. This pledge is at its very core. But for those who have to stay in hospital there are often a number of additional charges, which can add up to a considerable sum.

Today we look at these unwelcome extra costs, including parking, a bedside phone, a TV and the price of those essential items (food, drink and toiletries), which can be bought in the hospital shop where prices are often higher than they are in a supermarket.

These items are essentials, not luxuries and also important in keeping up a patient’s morale. A day in a hospital bed can be boring and depressing without some entertainment or an edible treat.

Relatives of those in hospital have no choice but to pay for parking if they are to make daily visits. And many will risk putting themselves in financial difficulties to be at a loved one’s bedside. Some will also be giving up paid work to come to the hospital.

Cash-strapped hospital trusts want to maximise revenue. Parking charges have long been a cause of concern but the additional costs incurred simply to provide a patient with a glass of fruit squash or a tube of toothpaste are a scandal.

People staying in hospital are at their most vulnerable and their relatives and friends are anxious to do their best for them. Simply speaking: they are being taken advantage of.