TV charges at Raigmore are branded as 'disgraceful'
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A campaigner has hit out at a decision by NHS Highland to keep charging patients for TVs in Raigmore Hospital.
Shelley Gill, who led a campaign to have the pods removed, said the move by NHS Highland to keep the units was unbelievable.
The contract with Hospedia for bedside TVs and telephones came to an end last week but NHS bosses said they had decided to keep the units until the end of the financial year – at least.
Patients must pay £1 per day to watch terrestrial television and are charged 13p per minute to take incoming phone calls.
Inverness resident Ms Gill started her campaign after her gran Jan Ryan, who has since passed away, was forced to pay £40 to access TV and telephone services for a four-night stay at the hospital.
Ms Gill said: “I think it is disgraceful that at the end of the contract, more than two years after hearing how unhappy people were, Raigmore has not come up with a better solution. They might be charging less, but they are still charging people when most people will have a TV licence anyway.
“There must be another way of funding it, rather than asking vulnerable people to pay out. Why not have free wi-fi throughout the hospital for everyone to use, and a library system to loan out tablets, kindles, or chromebooks to anyone who needs them?”
A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said it needed more time to investigate options, adding a newly negotiated package was cheaper than before.
Hospedia was unavailable for comment.
