Patients forced to watch TV

Some hospital patients are being forced to watch television for 15 hours a day because their bedside sets do not have an off switch.

The TV service, provided by private firm Patientline, was found to irritate many patients who were subjected to the flickering light of the sets against their will, according to the Health Service Journal.

The company provides TVs to 115 hospitals in the UK, but only 32 have the sets that cannot be switched off.

The 17,500 televisions generally come on at around 6am or 7am and stop transmitting at 10pm, according to the journal.

Even if the patient does not pay the £3.20 a day for the full range of programmes, the sets show trailers for the Patientline service and hospital information.

Flicekring image

They can be pushed against the wall, but some have complained that even this allows flickering light to be cast around the room.

To disable the set a Patientline worker has to be called, but this means that it cannot be turned on again.

In a letter of complaint seen by the HSJ, patient Robert McMaster, who was treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, said: "I, and other patients, found it irritating to be subject to this continuous and unwelcome stimulation, particularly at night or when trying to rest."

The Department of Health acknowledged that some patients suffering severe forms of epilepsy could be affected by the constant exposure to the TVs, but doctors could act to prevent this happening.

Patientline, which was set up by former Prison Service director general Derek Lewis, confirmed that its earlier TVs did not have an off switch, but its later versions can be turned off.

These 38,500 newer sets have been provided to patients in 83 other hospitals.

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