Patients have to pay £10 a DAY just to watch TV on wards
SCOTLAND’S hospitals have been told to ditch the ‘rip-off’ charges of up to £10 a day vulnerable patients have to pay to watch TV.
The ‘extortionate’ fees mean even short-stay patients are being hit hard in the pocket just to access basic television channels and ‘on demand’ services.
Longer-stay patients face huge bills to access TV to keep them entertained. The NHS does not receive a penny from providers from the lucrative service.
In contrast, it is understood prisoners in Britain’s jails pay an average of £1 a week to access TVs.
The hospital TV fees are paid to private suppliers which provide the monitors to hospitals.
Now a Tory MSP has set up a campaign urging hospitals to end the ‘daylight robbery’ charges. It is backed by a charity for older people, which says accessing TV while stuck in hospital can help lift patients’ spirits and aid recovery.
Many of the hospitals have a contract with Hospedia, a firm that supplies services to 140 UK hospitals. Several of these long-running contracts are due to end this year.
At Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, patients pay £7.90 a day to access the basic TV package, or £9.90 a day for TV and movies. For three days, the charge is £19.90 for TV and £24.90 for TV and movies.
Highlands Tory MSP Edward Mountain yesterday led a Holyrood debate on the issue, launching a petition for fairer fees. He said: ‘I believe the charges for bedside TV are a rip-off for short-stay patients and daylight robbery for long-stay patients.’ He added: ‘The cost of bedside television in NHS Highland is extortionate and prohibitive.’
Adam Stachura, head of policy at Age Scotland, said: ‘This will be particularly unaffordable for those older people on low incomes who might have a long stay and would otherwise be bored senseless.’
Mental Health Minister Claire Haughey said: ‘I agree that the services need to be reviewed. The Scottish Government therefore expects all NHS boards to assess and adopt a patient-centred approach on the expiration of the contracts.’ NHS Highland said it has ‘begun exploring options which will allow us to come up with a package of bedside entertainment that will provide better value for our patients’.
Hospedia said its services are ‘borne by the provider with no cost to the taxpayer or the NHS’ and support a Dumfries-based call centre which services 60,000 bedside units across the UK.
A spokesman said: ‘We endeavour to make services as affordable and accessible as possible but must charge for some services.’
Comment – Page 16
‘Extortionate and prohibitive’