THREATENED
Patients are being threatened with legal action
if they bring their own TVs to watch in hospital.
Patientline is using agents to patrol wards to
insist patients only use its service, at a cost
of £2.90 a day.
The company also charges 49p a minute to phone
patients, while outgoing calls cost 10p a minute.
Patientline has £80million debts and is keen to
recoup a £170million investment in its phone and
TV system in 150 NHS hospitals.
The Patients' Association said, "Patientline
agents are paid to go round the wards to make
sure patients use their services. But they've no
right to threaten patients who have no contract
with them. They are simply exploiting a captive
market."
The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton,
where Mr Holes was treated, said it would speak
to Patientline about how they approach patients,
but only battery-powered devices were allowed in
wards. (Source: Sunday Mirror, Dec/07) |
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HOSPITAL CHARGES
The cost to patients of making
telephone calls from their hospital bed is to increase by
160%. Patientline, which charges people to make phone
calls and watch television in hospital, is to increase
its call charge from 10p a minute to 26p. It said the
move was necessary because it had never made a profit
despite investing £160m in the system. Although hospital
bans on mobile phones are set to be lifted, NHS trusts
are responsible for formulating their own policy on
mobile phone usage.
Patientline charges patients £3.50 a day to watch
television and £2.20 for an hour on the internet. The
company said it is reducing the cost of television to
£2.90 a day to compensate for the higher cost of calls
and for people outside hospital calling patients at their
bedside the cost is 39p per minute off-peak and 49p a
minute peak. An investigation by Ofcom, which regulates
phone and television services, claimed the firm could be
breaking competition laws because of the high charges for
dialling into hospitals. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Apr/07)
Hospitals
which have sky-high charges for car parking, telephone
calls and TV are set to face a Government investigation.
In London, some hospitals charge £2.30 an hour for
parking and Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry has just
raised charges from £6 to £9 a day. Some hospitals also
charge up to 49p a minute for incoming phone calls. MPs
argue that outpatients, who have to go to hospitals
several times a week for treatment, should get vouchers
for cut-price or free parking. The Commons Health Select
Committee has started its own investigation into NHS
charges and it is expected to lead to a full Government
probe. (Source: Daily Mirror, Mar/06)
Patientline, the company that provides
bedside phone, TV and internet services for NHS hospital
patients, has seen its annual losses more than double.
The company reported a pre-tax loss of £24.7m after it
was investigated by regulators over the level of call
charges. Patientline said the negative publicity from the
investigation had put people off using its phones. It
also said that its revenues had been hit by ward closures
and empty beds.
Telecoms regulator Ofcom said it was to look into the
charges imposed on calls to hospital patients by their
relatives, after complaints that they were too high.
Ofcom cleared Patientline of any wrongdoing, saying the
firm was not profiteering and that the price levels
stemmed from the terms of the licences issued by the
Department of Health. The Department of Health set up a
review group that is looking at all aspects of bedside
telephone and entertainment systems in hospitals.
(Source: BBC News, Jun/06)
Ex-employees of Patientline, which has deals
with 160 NHS trusts, said they were forced to approach
ill patients to get them to sign up to the services.
Company documents show that Patientline had recently
started moving to a more "sales-driven" culture
with all staff being urged to try to increase revenue.
Patientline said it makes it clear to staff the sensitive
nature of the work. Peter Troy, who worked for the
company for 18 months at a north east hospital, said he
was effectively having to approach everyone.
He said, "My concern was that the culture was
changing. It was becoming high pressure sales and I was
becoming increasingly uncomfortable with it. To obtain
the performance figures that they expected then by
definition you were having to approach everybody."
And another former employee added, "It reminded me
of a cold calling job. Going from door to door, except
with this it was going from patient to patient. It did
not matter how ill they looked."
A company newsletter has revealed there was a change in
approach. It said there was a "need to create a
sales-drive culture" and that "every individual
in Patientline will be accountable either for direct
selling or for supporting our sales teams in their quest
to increase revenues." A spokeswoman for Patientline
said, "Patientline does not encourage hard-selling
and our advisors are merely there to provide information
and support to patients." (Source: BBC News, May/07)
Patientline is facing collapse and is in
crisis talks with banks over debts totalling £80million.
Earlier this year it raised prices by 160% to 26p a
minute but scrapped the increase after it was condemned
by patient groups. However, incoming calls remain at 39p
a minute off-peak and 49p during peak times. Raising
prices was part of an attempt to revive the
companys fortunes but revenue is down by a fifth as
people stopped using the phones.
Patientline has been caught out after investing
£170million in high-tech systems in 150 NHS hospitals
but the technology has been massively under-used. The
companys systems are installed at more than 75,000
hospital bedsides. It had hoped hospitals would allow
patients to use the bedside screens to choose their
meals. It was also set-up to enable doctors and nurses to
check patient records and medication dosages
electronically but just one hospital uses the units for
electronic records and a handful of others have the meal
option. (Source: Daily Express, Oct/07)
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