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My son's mother-in-law is going to be in hospital for at least six weeks.  Her husband bought a small television for her and took it in today.  While she was watching it a nurse came and told her she was not allowed to use it because the
hospital has that scheme where patients pay £3.50 per day to rent one. 

Are hospitals allowed to do this?  It will cost around £150 in rental because she's going to be there for such a long time.

There was a bit on watchdog about it. Daylight robbery. I didn't bother when I was in but the radio was free. Some of the people took their laptops to watch films and swapped their dvds with others, but even then some hospitals won't even let you plug anything in even a phone charger.

I think it gets cheaper if you buy a card for a long time, you also get a phone in the deal with your own number so you can talk for hours with friends. She will be better off without the telly as all of us who didn't use the service had a good laugh and made friends, the tv addicts were lonely outcasts.

I think the phone rental is paid for but the calls are very expensive per minute.

yes, phone calls are VERY expensive, and so is the TV... daylight robbery which i wish would be stopped...

I had my laptop brought in to me, when i was in a lot last year, and i watched DVD's.  if you have a laptop and portable hard drive, you can record her favourite TV programmes on a daily basis, and take them in each day and copy onto her laptop - and she can watch them a day late... a hassle, but cheaper than the TV rental

At York, the nurses didn't mind laptops being plugged in... whereas the guys checking (aka trying to sell the TV service) the TV's, looked a bit put out, but tough!

mat

Most hospitals insist that anything is PAT tested for safety before it is plugged into the mains. Some will then allow you to use it -but the ones with the Pay TV and telephones may not as it discourages  you from buying their service. Like previous posters have said there is usually a cheaper rate if you pay for more than one day. Anne

Yes Patientline - they have a contract because they were also supplying other communications stuff for hospitals and in return they are allowed to run this pay-TV thing. I don't approve of it either.

I think despite the expensive TV and phone, they still went bankrupt a couple of years back. What happened after that I'm not sure.

I think that service pretty much killed off hospital radio in many places as well, because although radio services are free, you still have to call the number and get it switched on for you, and people don't realise it's free.

Oh look I think it was sort of the other way round - they installed communication infrastructure in hospitals, and patient TV and phones were only supposed to be part of that, but when hospitals decided not to give them the contract for other stuff, they were left with debts.

Maybe their contract people want to look over the paperwork a bit next time ??  ::)

Quote"Patientline was launched seven years ago and spent £170m installing entertainment systems in NHS hospitals. However, the company has not been able to earn enough to pay down its debts, not least because NHS trusts have declined to take up its other services, such as electronic patient record systems."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hospital-telephone-and-tv-firm-patientline-enters-administration-877864.html

Thanks for all the replies.

I'll tell my son about the Watchdog programme, maybe he could see it on i-player.

She has had mobility problems for quite some time so she usually watches lots of daytime tv at home.  

Thanks again, I'll let my son know about your suggestions.