'Extortionate' phone and TV costs face probe
THE Government is to review the "extortionate" cost of privately-run hospital bedside phone and television services.
Health Minister Simon Burns made the pledge after Tory MP Robert Halfon called for a crackdown on the "highly-priced" services in the Commons.
Bedside phone and television services are provided in hospitals by third-party firms, with incoming calls charged as highly as 49p per minute and television costing as much as 7 per day.
Mr Burns acknowledged it was an issue "of concern to many people" .
The previous government urged NHS trusts to relax the rules on mobile phones to help combat the monopoly on bedside services.