Patients lying in their hospital beds are charged 10 times more to watch 'free ' TV programmes than prisoners incarcerated in their cells , it has emerged . To use a bedside television showing terrestrial programmes at Southport Hospital , patients are charged £10 every 24 hours . Meanwhile inmates at nearby Maghull 's HMP Kennet pay just £1 a week to have a TV in their cell . The stark disparity has prompted patients and their families to hit out at the costs , saying they add a huge expense to a stay in hospital . To use a bedside television showing terrestrial programmes at Southport Hospital , patients are charged £10 every 24 hours . That is 10 times more than prisoners are required to spend to watch the same 'free ' TV programmes . Relatives have branded the disparity 'shocking and unfair ' ( file picture ) Mike Gillett , whose relative was a patient at Southport Hospital after breaking her leg , said the family paid £140 over the course of a two-week stay . He said : 'To charge £10 is just unfair because you have nothing better to do but to watch TV while you are in hospital . 'What else are you supposed to do ? 'But to find out that people in prisons pay just £1 just beggar 's belief . 'Hard working tax payers are forking out £10 per day to watch TV from their hospital bed when they have nothing better to do , but criminals pay a small fraction of the same amount - when they 're supposed to be locked up . 'It just does n't seem fair . I understand they have costs to meet but I would be shocked if it costs as much as £10 a day . 'Some patients on the ward were complaining that they only watch one soap a day , and it still costs them the same amount as if they were watching 24 hours of TV . ' Hospedia provides bedside TV services in NHS hospitals across the country . Patients are all charged similar amounts for access to TV , phone and internet services , across the UK . Meanwhile inmates at nearby Maghull 's HMP Kennet pay just £1 a week to have a TV in their cell ( file image ) A spokesperson for the company defended the charges to patients , saying it also paid for installation costs . They said : 'Hospedia provides bedside media to both Southport and Ormskirk hospitals across the majority of their wards . 'We have 323 TVs installed at Southport and 134 at Ormskirk . 'Private providers have spent hundreds of millions of pounds installing and operating these systems so that the NHS did not have to pay for them from public funds . 'If a patient is staying in hospital for one day only , we have a number of options for them to purchase but it is important to note that there are many longer term packages providing a wide range of further options too . 'We give very serious consideration to the packages we offer and customer feedback has been the driving force in selecting the durations and options we currently have available . ' A spokesman for Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust said : 'We will discuss the issues raised with Hospedia . '
Patients at Southport prison , near bath , pay £ ##50 a week to watch TV . But inmates at nearby prison are charged just £ 1 to watch TV in their prisons . staff and inmates have hit out at the ' shocking and unfair ' costs .