A week or so ago, Patientline, the company who supply units like the one shown here to around 75,000 hospital bedsides, were in the news. They announced a 160% hike in their telephone charges, an increase from 10p to 26p per minute for calls made.
To sugar the pill a little, the cost of the TV service was to be reduced from £3.50 to £2.90 per 24 hour period. I doubt that this 60p reduction would represent much of a saving against the increase in phone calls. Quite the contrary, in fact. The current rate of 10p per minute seems a reasonable deal, but I can tell you from experience that it soon disappears.
As you may know, I have recently returned to hospital for further surgery and, as Shirl and I were going to be 40 miles apart this time (with the possbility of only one visit), the combined TV / phone card would be essential. I armed myself with £10-worth to start off with, followed by a further £5 and then another £3.50, out of which I ended up with 90p left over.
All this was at the pre-hike rate of 10p per minute for the phone and a curious £3 (not £3.50 or £2.90) per day for TV. Given that I was incarcerated from around 2.30pm on Tuesday to 2pm on Friday (and totally out of it for about 4 1/2 hours on the day of the op), this was not a cheap experience.
I dread to think what the cost may have been if the price increase had already been introduced. What happens to those on low incomes or the elderly on pensions when it does kick in? Maybe they just won't be able to afford to keep in touch with their loved ones. A daunting thought should the stay in hospital be an extended one.
"Ah", I hear you cry. "What about the loved ones ringing them?" Fine in principle, except that, to ring one of these Patientline phones, costs 39p per minute off-peak and 49p per minute during peak times (whatever they are). And, rubbing salt into the wound, the first minute or two of every call made to a bedside phone is taken up with the obligatory computerised instructions.
You know the sort of thing: "Press 1 to listen to some music, press 2 to listen to why we can't connect you, press 3 to talk to someone who doesn't care" etc. OK, an exaggeration, but you know what I'm driving at. The loved one could have rung Australia for what these first couple of minutes cost. In July 2005, Patientline were quoted in a BBC News report as saying, "We are considering whether the use of the recorded message at the start of each call raises the costs of making calls to hospital patients to excessive levels." Nearly 2 years on and not much has happened in that department.
Apparently, £160m was sunk into this venture about 4 years ago and it is now said to be £80m in debt. If, as is the popular belief, patients and others are driven away from using the system, the shortfall will never be recovered.
So, just who is benefitting from this service now?
OK. That's me off my soapbox. I'm off to do the Quiz now.
