Keeping it going
For many years, the hospital wards were equipped with a variety of different types of bedside radio equipment, some of it dated back almost as far as the NHS itself! In 2004 the hospital was fitted with brand new bedside entertainment and communication systems by PatientLine.
With PatientLine, patients can listen to a selection of radio programmes free of charge, or pay to watch TV or make phone calls. PHR's studio is connected to the PatientLine equipment room and our programmes are available on channel 1.
While PatientLine staff are responsible for keeping the systems clean and operating properly, our volunteers do occasionally get asked for headphones so we carry a small stock on behalf of the company and can give these out when needed. We also help patients to register with the PatientLine system whether or not they want any of the pay to use services, or just to listen to the radio.
In busy hospitals like these, it's not surprising that things get broken or worn out.
And in the "good old days" we had to spend a lot of time doing our best to help keep patients entertained by trying to make sure that they had a clean, working headset, and that the rest of the radio equipment was in good condition.
It costs a lot of money to keep a hospital going and sometimes there just isn't quite enough to go round - we spent years trying to do our best to keep the old bedside radio system going even though it was often at the bottom of the list of priorities for hospital maintenance.
