Source: http://www.expressandstar.com/articles/news/es/article_84750.php

Happy holidays indeed

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Patients at Wolverhampton's New Cross hospital have been told there won't be any TV this Christmas unless they pay £3.50 a day. The last of the free-standing televisions are being scrapped across the hospital as patients are told to use the new Patientline, which has been installed over individual beds.

The in-bed entertainment service, which offers internet access and a personal telephone, has been condemned as too expensive. But the hospital is now under a 15 year contract with Patientline which includes getting rid of every other television in the hospital. The system costs £3.50 a day with patients over 60 paying £1.70 and children under 12 nothing.

A nurse, who does not wish to be named, said they had been told that every ward in the hospital had to get rid of its TVs. She said: "People should have a choice and it is a shame for people who can't afford to pay the daily rate.

"Patientline is over a patient's bed but sometimes they don't work so even those that pay for the service may not have a television. "It is going to make Christmas even harder for patients who are being told they have to pay to see all the special shows and films which are on over the holiday."

The hospital says the charges for Patientline are not to help claw back its massive debt, which is expected to top £31.7 million in three years, as all proceeds go to the Berkshire-based company.

David Loughton, chief executive of Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said most of the TVs have already gone and the rest are being put into storage. "TVs that are less than three years old are being returned to whoever gave them to us and those more than three years old are being stored away," he said.

"As part of the 15 year contract with Patientline we can't have any TVs on the ward. "If patients don't pay to use Patientline then they won't have a TV - it is as simple as that."
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