Coffee shops in hospitals ‘ripping off’ customers

COFFEE shops located in hospitals are “ripping off” customers who have no choice but to pay over the odds, according to a leading charity.

A survey carried out by Friends of the Elderly — due to a high number of complaints it had received on the issue — has found that branches of popular coffee shops located in hospitals are often charging more than city centre outlets.

The project was undertaken at the main Dublin hospitals by student intern Karen McAdoo. She found that the worst offenders included coffee shops in St James’s, The Mater and St Vincent’s Hospital, which were found to be more expensive than the Dublin 2 outlets of Insomnia, Starbucks and Kylemore.