The BBC, Like The NHS, Is Free At The Point Of Delivery....Except Apparently At The NHS

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

This blog I know has been disjointed recently. My mother is currently in hospital and is recovering from an operation. I won't go into details, that's my mother's personal affair. but I think, I hope, that I will be back in Wales within two to three weeks. But for the moment I continue to be in Essex exile.

I should say that I have no complaints about the NHS hospital she's in (unlike her GP practice, but that's another story). The problems I have are not specific to this hospital but seem to be general. the car parking charges are a tax in England on people's emotions as they are visiting their loved ones. And there is also the question of the available TV installed on every bed in the hospital from an American company called Hospiedia....for a fee.

There are many channels on offer, including those for sports and movies. But it's the fact that they charge for free to air channels that gets me. After all they are seeking money from people at their most venerable. When you are in hospital, unless you are too ill to be bored. Time is either frenzied or dull. and Hospiedia knows this.

Now BBC1,BBC2,ITV,Channels Four and Five are available for free....between eight and twelve in the morning. So unless Homes Under The Hammer, decades old American comedies which seem to be on a virtual loop or Jeremy Kyle make your world complete. You're screwed.

There are arguments that Hospedia will put up about this. But for the moment let's just focus on the BBC. If you are a licence fee payer of the state broadcaster and find yourself unfortunately confined in a hospital bed under the state run health service then surely it should be free beyond the confines of morning daytime TV.

The elderly, people on low incomes and indeed the entire licence fee paying community should get the BBC channels for free. It's what the state should provide to it's citizens at the very least.

Until the next time.