Relatives are being charged six times the standard peak-time rate to phone their sick loved ones at a Sussex hospital.

Soon every hospital in the county could introduce the 50p-a-minute calls.

The rate has been fixed by Patientline, which has the contract to provide bedside telephone services at Eastbourne District General Hospital.

Patients are charged 10p a minute to phone out from their beds, also higher than BT's national rate of 8p during office hours.

It is one of three companies the Government licensed last year to provide the service.

Some residents have been dismayed by the charge for the 0900 number, which costs the same as calling a mobile phone.

Ian Leach, of Chatsworth Avenue, Telscombe Cliffs, who has a relative at the hospital, has written to Labour's Brighton Kemp Town MP, Des Turner, to raise the issue.

He said: "If you have a ten-minute call it's going to cost you £5.

"For us it is cheaper to drive over to the hospital by car and see the patient personally rather than phone up. That cannot be right.

"We are not disputing how good the service is, but the charge does seem rather excessive for people who want to call friends or relatives."

Mr Leach has called for the cost of incoming calls to be reduced to 10p a minute, in line with Patientline's outgoing calls.

He said: "A profit would still presumably be made and friends and relatives would not feel they are being taken advantage of."

Berkshire-based Patientline holds contracts with 23 hospitals across the country. Another nine are in the process of signing up.

Founded six years ago, it now has more than a million users and plans to introduce bedside games and pay-per-view movies.

A spokeswoman for Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust said the 50p-a-minute price was standard and not within its control.

She said: "People are warned before they are put through of the cost of calling.

"We feel it is a beneficial service for both patients and nurses as it saves them having to take them out of bed to a payphone."

Patientline said it had made an initial outlay of about £1 million to set up the service and had to meet that cost through its business plan.

A spokesman said: "It is purely another choice for patients alongside the conventional system of transferring to the main switchboard before being put through.

"Patients can still do that. There is no obligation on anyone - they are free to choose which system they use."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said contracts were negotiated individually between the company and hospital trusts so they were aware of the charges.

Mr Turner said: "It would be better if Patientline made use of 0845 numbers which are charged at the normal rate."