Coming to an NHS hospital screen near you: 'Lansley TV' - Telegraph

Hospital patients recuperating in bed are being put through a further trial – the face of Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, on a loop on the in-house televisions.

To make matters worse, they have to register their details to turn off Mr Lansley’s welcome message, in which he says “your care really matters to me”.

Mr Lansley admitted the experience could be "rather unnerving" - in particular for one constituent whose baby's "first experience of life was looking up at me on the monitor".

But he defended the set-up, insisting it was "useful" for encouraging feedback and saying patients could turn the monitor off after the video was first displayed.

"They only have to see me once... so I would encourage them to see me once," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The Independent reported the “bedside entertainment systems” were now installed at about half the NHS hospitals across the country.
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[what's this]

The system charges patients up to £5 a day for using email, phone and television services.

Until individuals register, the television plays the message, which repeats every three or four minutes and comes complete with subtitles.

Mr Lansley’s message starts: “Hello, I’m Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary. I just want to take a few moments to say that your care while you’re here in hospital really matters to me.”

One patient told the newspaper: “It was eerie. Everywhere you looked there was Andrew Lansley. My mother-in-law had to keep topping up the machine just to escape him.”

A spokesman for Mr Lansley said he was simply repeating something which had been done by his predecessor.

A spokesman for Hospedia, which supplies the equipment, added: "The Secretary of State for Health was indeed filmed for the patient entertainment systems.

“The video is included as part of a series of informational items, however once a patient registers with the system for free, the video is no longer displayed.”

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If it'd been a Labour minister this would be a lot more outrageous. Ok, the Torygraph is biased, but I think Lansley difused it well too. Had it been, say, Harman, she'd have taken herself utterly seriously as always and insisted that it was crucial for public wellbeing and that she knows best.

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Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.