A North-East hospital has been accused of exploiting the sick by charging relatives who want to ring their loved ones sky-high rates.

Phil Wadsworth, 49, who lives in Cornwall, is horrified at the rates charged by the University Hospital of North Durham's privately-run phone system for in-coming calls.

Whenever he rings his 80-year-old mother, who has been a patient for more than a week, he is charged 39 pence a minute off-peak and 49 pence a minute for peak rate calls. Mr Wadsworth said: "The only contact I have is to ring her because I live more than 460 miles from Durham"

"I would like to spend half an hour a time talking to her but I can't afford it, it's costing me about £28 a week to speak to her every day."

Mr Wadsworth said: "The phone system is exploiting the sick and their families. I just can't believe they are doing this - what's wrong with having a payphone on a trolley like they used to do?"

The factory manager complained that his son, a student at Newcastle University, could not afford to ring his grandmother every day because of the high charges.

"It's cheaper for him to travel to and from the hospital. It's crazy," he said.

Mr Wadsworth added: "So this is how our Government is financing the NHS by the backdoor."

Julie Oliver, spokeswoman for the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, pointed out that the system was being extended to all major hospitals as part of the NHS Plan.

She argued that the bedside entertainment units which include a television, radio and phone, had proved popular with patients.

"The rate for patients who are ringing out of the hospital is actually lower than BT payphones. It would be cheaper for him to credit his mother's account," she added.

The bedside phones had been installed by the private company Patientline at no cost to the NHS hospital.

"Of course, as a commercial company they are in it to make money," she said. They will recoup their money over many years."

She stressed that the phone system installed throughout the trust had nothing to do with the Private Finance Initiative, the Government-backed scheme which used private funds to build the new Durham hospital.