An electric hand control, especially for electrically adjustable hospital and care beds comprising a number of activation switches (3;3a,3b), and a number of locking switches (9, 10;11 ;13, 14), which can be activated by means of a locking element (7) by which means the circuit for the activation switches (3;3a,3b) is cut off, so that the function belonging to it becomes inactive or locked. In an embodiment the locking switches are on-/off switches and in another embodiment the locking switches are based on a read switch and a magnet and in yet another embodiment the locking switches are based on a wave shaped disc (9) mounted over two contact points (10).