PATIENTS at the Preston Royal Hospital will soon be able to catch up on their favourite soaps or watch the footy from their sick beds.

The move, dubbed 'Patient Power', will see bedside communication systems installed in all the wards. Each bed will have a pay-as-you-view television set and a bedside pay-phone.

It is part of the Government's NHS plan to help improve patients' stay in hospital but health chiefs have been assured the hi-tech system will not take funds away from vital services.

And some patients will even have the pay-as-you-go fee reduced, under conditions of the supply agreement.

Work on the new system is expected to be completed in October this year after the communications company Patientline was given the contract following bids from three suppliers.

It has already been installed in 50 hospitals up and down the country with the RPH being one of the first in the North West to adopt the system along with its sister health care provider Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust, in Chorley.

But the Sharoe Green annexe of the Royal Preston is not going to receive the special treatment. Mums-to-be and the other patients on the Watling Street Road site will have to use the communal day room. Following discussions with Patientline, health chiefs say it will not be "financially feasible" to install the system at the Sharoe Green site due to the hospital's current closure programme.

The telecommunications plan has won praise from health bosses who are keen to get the message across that patients will only be allowed to use the equipment with headphones.

Acting chairman of Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust, Councillor Jim Breakell, said: "It would be awful if you wanted to watch the match on one side and someone else wanted Corrie on so there will be headphones.

"But there will be no pressure on patients to use the television and bedside payphone but it will be there as an option if they wish to use it.

"It is not costing the Trust a penny which makes it all the more attractive and one of the main reasons why we jumped on the idea.

"It is something that will pay for itself as people use it.

"I think it's a great idea and one which will be welcomed by patients."

But health bosses say the new equipment will not mean the scrapping of the day room television facility and payphone.