TVs in hospital: £10 a day!

MarkBargain

Thanks for your well-reasoned comments paddyrg, it's interesting to discuss it.

paddyrg wrote: »

1) ...except the NHS shouldn't be getting into unrelated markets, in my opinion. They could easily branch into running pharmacies, nursing agencies, etc., but this creates a kind of superstate and its own costs.

I am just not convinced that simply providing some TVs in hospitals is really a "market", and the NHS could simply tender out the provision of suitable equipment either on a free or paid-for basis.

2). Freeview boxes are only a small part of that list. Cabling, distribution amplifiers to boost signals for several hundred sets without signal degradation (digital particularly suceptible), tuning and setting up, remote getting lost/stolen/batteries being used for walkmans.

Most of that is in place already though, after all the existing TVs are using it.

3). Thought we were just saying the NHS would/should benefit financially?

I would prefer if TVs were free to patients as part of the service. However, if the money is not there and patients must pay then I think this money should go to the NHS rather than a private firm, especially when they start hiking up prices to boost their profits at the expense of a captive audience (the patients).

A ward of 30 beds is £3k of brand new tellies that can vanish in a night.

The TVs are there now though and these ones are not stolen, so I am not sure why NHS provided TVs would be stolen either if they were purchased with similar security i.e. integrated into the bracket holding them.

6) Voluntary donations and high setup and running costs would pretty much guarantee losing money - that's a few nurses lost!

I think it needs a reevaluation of the costs and benefits. Patients should not be paying £10 a day to watch TV while a private firm makes £2M a year of profit from them. Patient experience is, or should be, important to the NHS. It could be that unhappy, bored or depressed patients due to lack of TV, or stressed due to the cost and feeling ripped off, could be more expensive in the long run. Going back to the point of my Grandad, a nurse had to spend a few minutes explaining the costs of the TV and how he felt they were a rip-off, trying to empathise with annoyed relatives.

arcon5

giraffe69 wrote: »

If we moved to a system whereby health treatment was free but the inpatient made a contribution to their bed and board(with appropriate exceptions for the very old or very young or very poor) then the NHS would have an income stream and a billing system which could included hire of TVs (and I agree that £10 per day is profiteering).

We already have this system in place... it's called taxation.

I don't think bed and board should in any way be charged when we use the health service we all pay for. A television is a luxury and imo acceptable to charge for, but bearing in mind it will be one of very few forms of entertainment for patients it should be charged at a reasonable price.

MarkBargain

paddyrg wrote: »

I disagree. If you think the NHS can do a long term better job and make money on it risk-free without hiding/disguising the costs in general ward-time, with NHS unionised workforce and electrical constraints, by all means run the numbers and put together a business case for your local NHS trust.

The NHS should do this itself as part of a national procurement perhaps. Tender out the provision of all the equipment across the whole NHS then with all revenues flowing into the NHS. Do some business cases indeed rather than relying on figures from 10 years ago.

As-is, the hospitals are getting at-bed TV, internet and radio services for free (or sometimes even with a royalty to the hospital I understand) with no capital expenditure

According to Wikipedia:

"Recent returns for the Department of Health indicate many trusts are paying for outdated systems to be updated, even where there are a number of years remaining on the original contracts.
Examples: 2010 return shows a payment of £70,450.65 from Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust[19]
2011 return shows a payment of £47,692.00 from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust[20]
Patient groupsI][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words"]who?[/URL][/I have expressed anger over these payments as they feel the taxpayer is paying twice, once for the equipment to be installed and then again to view it."

or having to maintain tens of thousands of domestic-grade TV's and peripherals, nor install the technology required for them to work at all (ever tried rabbit-ears aerials on digital TV? Usually pretty terrible results especially in concrete indoors wards).

Is taking a risk with this where I want to see NHS money going? Into nurses trying to find replacement batteries in the middle of the night because some numpty wants to watch 24h roulette?

I don't know why you assume the current (10 year old?) solution doesn't haev these problems but an NHS supplied or bought in solution would. Remote controls could be integrated into the units as they are now, so no problems there if the right kit is bought.

MarkBargain

antrobus wrote: »

A bit late for that isn't it?

Patientline went bust in 2008. Well actually it went into administration and the business was bought out by Hospedia.

You are quite right, I just called it Patient Line as that's how it was branded in the hospital.

WelshBluebird

When I was in hospital last (granted it was around 13 years ago!), there was a TV fitted on a wall in most, if not all, of the wards. Is that still not the case?

Ellejmorgan

It cost £10 for a day as you bought it 12 hourly...
Just looked and costs are..

£2.50 for 2hrs
£5 for 12 hours
£20 for 5 days
£30 for 10 days...

google hospedia prices and there it is....there were some others but can't remember it all....

MarkBargain

WelshBluebird wrote: »

When I was in hospital last (granted it was around 13 years ago!), there was a TV fitted on a wall in most, if not all, of the wards. Is that still not the case?

No, they are on little brackets beside the beds these days and you can't watch until you have paid except for a little looping video of Andrew Lansley talking.

MarkBargain

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

It cost £10 for a day as you bought it 12 hourly...
Just looked and costs are..

£2.50 for 2hrs
£5 for 12 hours
£20 for 5 days
£30 for 10 days...

google hospedia prices and there it is....there were some others but can't remember it all....

£5 only covers 5 TV channels though. If you want the Freeview channels (Grandad wanted BBC News 24) then it is £10 for 24 hours.

Ellejmorgan

MarkBargain wrote: »

£5 only covers 5 TV channels though. If you want the Freeview channels (Grandad wanted BBC News 24) then it is £10 for 24 hours.

No that's wrong I found the info under Portsmouth Hospital....
The £10 is for 2 days, its £40 for 20 days...

They have bought it 12 hourly to make it cost £10 and website clearly states over 25 channels...
Google hospedia prices or entertainment and it's there...

Like i said last time I was in hospital I paid £20 for 5 days and had all channels except the extra movie ones & free calls

Gleek

MarkBargain wrote: »

Even my 90 year old grandad can operate a TV. Besides, the support on the wards is left to nurses. There are no Patientline people on site helping patients you know!

My 80 year old grandfather can't, he forgets how to use even his own that he's been using for years - unfortunately not everyone is the same Especially with all the new-fangled buttons etc that are on remotes now. He can't even play a game of freecell now which he used to love

I have to admit that our patientline staff are pretty good because my grandad has been in hospital a fair bit since April '11 and when we've rung up there's always been someone there instantly (he only had the radio though which you can activate for free as he refused to watch the tv and basically stared ahead for the entire time - 10 days at the longest :eek: and he wouldn't have been able to use it as above ) We saw them everyday he was in too during visiting time wiping down the machines and cleaning them and checking them over.

I did have it when I was in in June '07 but I think it was like £20 for the week? Not sure. :rotfl: It wasn't a large amount extra.

It is ridiculously expensive and even the free landline calls don't make up for it