YOU would be think that hospital radio would provide a free service to its patients. Well, you would be right, but equally wrong.

The York Hospital Radio is a free service, but first you have to register. The cost of this is time and money. It takes about 20 minutes to register and when you think that the whole object of being in hospital revolves around sickness, then the headache and exasperation this causes is one sick joke.

The next headache is the cost, which is a staggering £10 per day! The catch is that you pay for the privilege of television; the hospital radio is a free extra. One patient confided that "he expected three things in hospital: food, sleep and the radio". He was deprived of all three; but the first two he could live without.

Dedicated volunteers give their time freely to this noble cause, yet does this cavalier attitude by a private business beggars belief.

Could this however be yet further erosion of our fragile health service?

Phil Shepherdson,

Chantry Close,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 09:05 Monday, November 28, 2005