HC Deb 09 February 2004 vol 417 cc1413-4W
Mr. Portillo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds have installed services for telephone, television and radio under the Patient Power Project, broken down by the licence holder providing the service. [152033]

Mr. Hutton

52,000 beds have installed patient power services, including 46,000 in the major hospitals targeted in the NHS Plan. The number of operational beds provided by patient power licence holders is shown in the table.

Licence Holder Number of operational beds
Patientline 44,400
Wandsworth Electrical 3,713
Hospital Telephone Services 2,841
Kerfone 1,375
Premier Managed Payphones 100

Mr. Portillo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proportion of the beds deemed suitable to receive telephone, television and radio services under the Patient Power Project have those services; [152034]

(2) how many and what proportion of NHS trusts have signed concession agreements with licence holders under the Patient Power project; [152035]

(3) how many installations under the Patient Power project will be completed by the end of 2004. [152036]

Mr. Hutton

Strong progress is being made with the patient power project. These facilities for patients are delivered at no cost to the National Health Service. As a result, the National Health Service has benefited from over £100 million of private sector investment.

The NHS Plan target states that patient power services will be available in every major hospital by the end of 2004, which means some 85,000 beds in 155 major hospitals in 125 trusts will have a system. Within major hospitals, over 46,000 beds of that target of 85,000 already have an operational system with almost a year to go before the NHS Plan deadline for installation. 122 of the 125 targeted trusts have signed a contract with a supplier and the remaining three are expected to sign shortly. In addition, NHS Estates has worked with suppliers to enable smaller hospitals to install a service. In total, 52,000 beds in 112 hospitals currently have the service. So far, a total of 149 trusts have signed a contract with a patient power licence holder.

Mr. Portillo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many licences have been awarded to firms to provide telephone, television and radio services to hospital patients' bedsides under the patient power project. [152037]

Mr. Hutton

Eight patient power suppliers have licences, five of which are full licences and three are provisional.