HOSPITAL bosses in the region are scratching their heads over claims that patients are being forced to watch bedside television 24 hours a day.

Many NHS hospitals in the North-East now have sophisticated bedside TV systems installed by private company, Patientline.

But according to the Health Service Journal, at least one person in the Reading area has complained that patients are unable to turn off the sets.

The company has responded by issuing a statement stressing that while a minority of their bedside TVs do not have an on/off switch, they can be turned off by hospital staff.

Patients can also turn down the sound and push the sets against a wall.

The University Hospital of North Durham was the first in the North-East to have the controversial pay-per-view TVs.

A spokesman for the NHS trust that runs the Durham hospital said their televisions did not have an on/off switch but this did not seem to have caused any problems.

"We have had no complaints about this issue from patients at the Durham site," he said.

Patientline sets at Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland General Hospital have on/off switches, the spokesman added.

A spokeswoman for the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust said that while their wards had Patientline TVs, they all had switches.

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust also confirmed that many patients have Patientline TVs but all of them have a switch.

James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, is considering installing a similar system, while Sunderland's NHS trust has just begun putting in the pay-TVs.

A spokesman for Patientline said: "In the past nine years and all the tens of millions of hours of viewing that have taken place across the country, this is the first time this has become an issue."