Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he issued guidance to NHS hospitals on the phasing out of pay-to-use cash machines.

Decisions on the provision of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at hospitals are made by National Health Service trusts locally. Guidance has not been issued on ATMs, but there is more general guidance on income generation can be found at the following link:

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130124072327/http:/www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4130668.pdf

Local decisions need to include an assessment of the need for supporting patients and visitors to access cash. The use of electronic payments is increasingly common in NHS hospitals. As with other areas of income generation, in the event that a surplus is made by the trusts after costs are offset, this is used to improve clinical services.