Hospital media ‘making a meaningful difference’

Tim Kelsey of NHS England, and businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Baroness Martha Lane Fox, called for Wi-Fi to be made available free of charge throughout the NHS back in 2015. The vision of NHS England's then National director for Patients and Information, and the former UK digital champion, was to give patients greater access to digital health apps, self-help tools, and social networks, in ways that could 'support recovery and promote wellbeing'.

It was a bold and positive move for the health service that now, in 2024, has been widely achieved — at least from a technology standpoint. Free Wi-Fi is available to patients across the NHS estate, but with continuously growing pressures in the health service, and ever evolving patient expectations, enabling access to the internet only goes part way to achieving the goals that sat behind the vision. That is one of the reasons that more and more UK hospitals have been taking a different approach to media services.

The entertainment services provided on many screens you might find on an arm at the hospital bedside have all too often been the subject of negative publicity. Currently, there are around 40,000 terminals still in place on hospital wards in the UK, that are at best more than a decade old, and indeed many are significantly older. Sometimes charging patients more than £10 per day to watch home television channels, such devices are often barely used on wards, despite a requirement for them to be always powered on. They can be difficult to operate, and do little to serve the needs of patients or the NHS. It's for these reasons that many Trusts have in the past chosen not to provide patient media services to patients.