Blair’s to blame for hospital shop rip-offs

WHAT a disgrace. WH Smith has been selling 80p toothpaste for £8 in a hospital shop. Although the retailer has since said it was a pricing error, and has donated the money made from the sales to a charity, exploitation of the sick is nothing new.

In a hospital where I worked that had a similarly eye-wateringly overpriced WH Smith, nursing staff would often pop out to the supermarket on their lunch break to get basic necessities, such as toiletries, for patients.

Why do hospitals allow this to happen? This is a legacy

of Tony Blair and — with the introduction of Foundation Hospitals in the early 2000s — the insistence that hospitals become profitgenerating businesses.

There are only so many ways a hospital can actually make money and most have hit upon two things: car parking and renting out the space in the foyer to corporations.

It’s the latter that explains why the entrance to many hospitals now resemble shopping malls.

The casualty in this has been the much-loved League of Friends shops, usually staffed by volunteers, who wanted to give something back, often as a thank-you to the hospital who helped them.

Every time I pay £2.50 for a coffee in hospital, I think of the League of Friends who not only charged 20p but would throw in a biscuit, too.