Paula Sherriff MP (Dewsbury and Mirfield) is promising to take up with the Health Select Committee the alleged overcharging of customers on hospital sites by W.H.Smith .

See story below:

WH Smith has been accused of exploiting customers at hospital stores after a BBC investigation found it was charging significantly lower prices on the high street.

The retailer was found to be charging £1.89 for a 750ml bottle of water at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield was available for £1 in Leeds city centre.

Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff said the approach was "fundamentally wrong".

WH Smith said longer opening hours and higher costs were behind the pricing.

But Labour MP Ms Sherriff, who worked in the NHS before becoming an MP and sits on the Health Select Committee, said patients and visitors were "effectively being exploited".

'Just morally wrong'

She said shops had "unfortunately got a captive audience" at hospitals and added that the matter could be raised at the select committee.

BBC Radio Leeds compared the prices of water and stationery items at WH Smith shops in Pontefract and Wakefield hospitals with the retailer's branch near Trinity shopping centre in Leeds.

It found the 750ml bottle of water cost £1.49 in Pontefract hospital.

Other items that were more expensive included a pad of A4 paper that was priced about 60% higher in both hospitals - £3.99 compared to £2.49 in Leeds city centre.

The radio station also compared the cost of three different sandwiches at Marks & Spencer in St James's Hospital, Leeds with the company's Briggate branch in the city.

The sandwiches were all about 15% more expensive. A ham and cheese sandwich that cost £2.50 on Briggate was £2.90 in the hospital branch.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the independent charity the Patients Association, said the higher prices were "just morally wrong".

"I am shocked because they are targeting the wrong people; poorly paid staff and patients. It is wrong to take advantage of a captive audience."

The association would support the matter being raised before the Health Select Committee, she added.

WH Smith said: "Locations such as hospitals are more complex environments to operate in, with certain operational costs being significantly higher than on the high street, for example longer opening hours, more complicated delivery arrangements and often higher occupational costs."

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Contact Details: Email: healthcom@parliament.uk 020 7219 6182

Alex Paterson – Media Officer: patersona@parliament.uk 020 7219 1589

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NOTE TO READERS W.H Smith is the same company asking to see and screening  airport passengers boarding cards so that W.HSmith can recover and keep for itself the repayable VAT from transactions on passengers travelling outside the EU (say Turkey) 

Airport VAT scam: WHSmith could have pocketed £50m from ruse in just five years

CLICK HERE

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ADDED: The Times 26th August 2015

Top retailers caught out in great hospital shop rip-off

Two of the country’s biggest retailers are routinely charging customers up to 50 per cent more for goods in hospital shops compared with their stores on the high street, an investigation has found.

WH Smith and Marks & Spencer were accused last night of exploiting a captive market by making hospital patients and their visitors pay more for the same items, including £7 price increases on flowers and “get well soon” cards costing nearly double the price elsewhere

The Times gathered price comparisons from ten hospitals in eight cities across Britain and found that it was more expensive to buy items such as snacks, sandwiches, bottled water and stationery from the hospital…

(story continues)

Mark-ups for the sick

Marks & Spencer

Large bunch of flowers: £17 at Forth Valley Hospital; £10 in Falkirk town centre

Free-range egg and cress sandwich: £1.85 at the Royal Free and Guy’s and St Thomas’; £1.30 in Hampstead

Falafel and houmous snack box: £3.20 at Addenbrooke’s; £2.75 in Cambridge city centre

80g  parma ham: £3.20 at Broomfield Hospital; £3 in Chelmsford

750ml Scottish water: £1 at Royal Free, St Thomas’, Broomfield, Chelmsford, and Bristol Royal Infirmary; 80p on high street