The cost of TV for hospital patients
Costs to rent a TV for a week whilst a hospital patient are on the rise.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
What’s it cost to rent a TV during a hospital stay these days?
A lot, according to some providers.
$13.90 a day is the cost for TV access from Hills Health Solutions at Royal Prince Alfred West Hospital, climbing to $90.30 for a week.
Rates for one-day access went from a minimum of $10 to $13.90 for patients, while patients with concession cards saw rates increase from $9 to $12.80.
At the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne it’s $80.50 for a week.
Those are costs for Free to Air television.
Yahoo reports hospitals that have not outsourced their entertainment packages will offer free-to-air TV at no cost. For those who have, however, in-hospital entertainment will come at a high cost.
Previous reports also state that public hospitals are autonomous from state governments in NSW, Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, thus it is up to the individual institution to provide its own service. Each medical facility enters a contract with an outsourced company – otherwise called a patient entertainment service (PES) provider – on its behalf.
A spokesperson for Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) hospitals, told Yahoo a fee for this service was charged to patients to cover the cost of renting the TV sets, which were not owned by the hospitals.
“If a patient is experiencing financial hardship, they can request access to the service through staff at a cost to the hospital,” the spokesperson said. “This may also be applied to patients who are experiencing behavioural problems as a method of managing that behaviour.”
13 Responses
My wife was in hospital for 8 months from Sept 2021 with a rare disease brought on by the AZ vaccination. While in ICU for 3 months, there was no charge for the TV. But when she went into the wards for rehab etc, it was around $7 a day. There was free Wifi but not suitable for streaming – but we could pay around $5 a day for Wifi “better suited to streaming”. We decided not to bother with the FTA TV or their Wifi and instead increased her mobile plan for streaming and she was able to watch what she wanted on a phone or tablet. Ended up as around $2-3 a day.
In one of the wards she was in, more than half the patients would not have the TV on as they just can’t afford it. Very wrong.
Glorious capitalism – isn’t it wonderful.
People complain about the cost of living about a number of things and they are right, but it is these small thing that show how pernicious capitalism can be be in extracting profit far in excess of the actual cost of providing such a service. No ACCC to worry about. It has no intellectual curiosity to look behind the curtains to see if what they charge is fair and reasonable. I am not even sure if there is some rule against captured capitalism.
I had a week in hospital last year, I just streamed the TV networks’ apps to my phone. Bypassed the hospital TV system entirely. Perhaps I was lucky that I had good 4G where I was. Although TBH if internet wasn’t available I would have just lived without TV for the duration.
Of course this sort of thing of paying for TV in hospital is not new. Hospitals had outsourced TV to rental companies decades ago as far back as the ’70s.
No internet/smarty pants phones the times I was in hospital…little box hanging off the roof…sound came from bed controller….charged daily rates…you buy so many days at a time….Rather read a book or listen to free music….
That’s outrageous! You can watch ‘free to air’ TV live through all the TV stations catch up web sites and apps on your phone, iPad or whatever device you use . Same for all the paid subscription services. My 5G monthly phone plan is way way less than those hospital TV fees and comes with a ridiculous amount of gigabytes of data per month that even if I watched TV 24 hours a day for a whole month I’d never use up all the data. Last time I was in hospital TV was free thankfully. They just made you watch it with headphones on to not disturb other patients which is fair enough.
Last year I spent 2 weeks in the cardiac ward of a public hospital and the TV was owned by a provider with a daily access fee. Each room had free WiFi but patients and visitors were behind a firewall which blocked access to many Internet sites and session time-outs meant that you had to keep logging in. Being a Hospital the Doctors and staff have unlimited access and a priority connection. I never used the TV.
Our Mater Public Hospital here in Brisbane have free TV on swivel brackets above each bed when I was taken there during an emergency which is definitely something compared to the state of our health system in Queensland and the rest of Australia. The private hospitals I’ve stayed in some I’ve had to pay a deposit as well as rental costs and some weren’t a daily rate but weekly. Alternative is some have the visitors lounge with TV and coffee/tee making facilities if you can get there with some help of course. Some years ago some didn’t even allow mobiles etc under the guise of “it interferes with their medical equipment”, and the staff would embarrass you by calling you out in front of everyone around if they saw you whip out your mobile. That was horrible.
Disgraceful it should be free everywhere I spent 3 weeks in stgeorge hospital Sydney in 2018 and it was free
Who wants to be watching funeral insurance ads throughout the day while you’re in hospital? 😬
The government has allowed the hospitals to sell a monopoly to providers, who gouge their patients. Then they are providing free internet at taxpayer expense that undermines it driving up the price for people who do rent TV. Eventually there will be no TV for people who want it. Crazy things that the public service do when they outsource. TV is trivial, when it’s happened with Employment Services, DES and NDIS, Home Care, Vetran’s Care it’s been criminal.
I remember when I was in hospital having my second child I had to stay in a few days and I was thankful for the iPad and Netflix. I recall just watching Gilmore Girls the whole time I was there (never seen the show before) and never opted for a TV rental. I am guessing this may the way people will view TV in the future…
Disgraceful, especially when they probably have free wi-fi so you could stream content if you have your own device with you.
I have recently spent a lot of time in hospital
. Most hospitals provide free internet so just connect up with iPad, tablet, phone etc.
Those that don’t have free internet, just hotspot off your phone! That’s what I did! Hospital price for crappy free tv were ridiculous! Up to $20 per day!!!!!