Health Secretary Alan Milburn has denied that charging patients for private phones and televisions will lead to other hotel-style fees.

Under the NHS Plan, all hospitals are expected to introduce personal phones and televisions, with patients paying to use them, by 2004.

The scheme, which is being piloted at the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City, has attracted widespread criticism from local politicians and health unions, who claim it signals ministers' intention to introduce privatisation by stealth.

The Labour-led Commons Select Committee on Health, which meets this week, is expected to discuss the issue and challenge Mr Milburn to declare how far he plans to take charges.

Chairman David Hinchcliffe said he fears they will spread to other areas. He said: "We have looked at some of the new hospitals, such as Carlisle and Durham, where they have an arrangement for charging patients for telephones and televisions.

"I have no problem with that. We would have a problem if hotel charges included food and beds.

"We will certainly be asking Mr Milburn where he draws the line."

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Milburn dismissed the suggestion of charging for superior food as "rubbish".

He said: "We are simply charging for people to watch what they would like on television, in the same way as the BBC charges licence fees.

"If people want access to the Internet, it's ludicrous to expect the NHS to pay.

"We are not in the business of introducing so-called hotel charges.

"There is no prospect of patients being charged for anything else."

Under the pilot scheme at the Durham hospital, patients can buy cards costing between £2 and £20 to use their bedside phone and television, which includes satellite channels.

Children are given free access, and pensioners get double time for their money.

For those not wishing to pay, there are communal phones and television rooms.

A spokeswoman for North Durham Health Care NHS Trust said the system worked well.

She said: "Providing access to a bedside phone and television is more convenient for patients and offers greater choice."