IN-PATIENTS at Basildon Hospital have been left for weeks without access to privately-owned televisions at their bedside.

Patients – including some of whom are on long-term stays at the hospital wards while they fighting serious illnesses – have been left without accessible entertainment, leaving them desperate for something to do during the long days between treatments.

Laura Eisenhauer, 53, from Basildon, has been on the Florence Nightingale Ward at Basildon Hospital since July 30. She has been without a television, which she was previously paying £20 every three days for, since Saturday August 11.

She said: “The days can be very monotonous and having the television would have been a really welcome distraction from everything happening around me in the past few weeks.

“The hospital have been absolutely brilliant. I know it isn’t a huge problem, but I know other people have faced similar issues with their televisions, which are paid for privately, which has added in at least some way to the discomfort we’ve been going through.”

Basildon Hospital contract out the operation of their bedside media units to private company Hospedia, based in Slough, who deliver digital solutions to the NHS and its patients.

Ms Eisenhauer has made multiple complaints to Hospedia, but she has claimed that they have not made any arrangements to fix the issue, which other patients on the ward have also been experiencing.

She said: “I understand that there can be difficulties in getting staff out to fix the televisions, but the way I have been treated has been at times quite inconsiderate.

“We are all patients facing our own difficulties, and there needs to be an understanding that seemingly minor logistical or technical difficulties can have a big impact on our day-to-day experience.”

Hospedia did not wish to make an official comment, however a spokesman confirmed that they would be investigating the matter. Basildon Hospital had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to press.