Comments on: Criticism of Patientline Costs

By: Refill your laser printer man

Refill your laser printer man — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:27:09 +0000

John Procter just made a point that I did not even think about. Hygene on the terminal. He is correct. I was in visiting my wife yesterday and it is filthy. I bet that phone is riddled with staphylococcus

staphylococcus
a type of bacteria that cause various infections. Staphylococcus aureus is commonly present on the skin and mucous membranes, especially those of the nose and mouth; it can cause pus-containing lesions such as boils, carbuncles and abscesses. Other strains are associated with food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome.

That terminal hangs in front of sick peoples faces, sneezing, coughing and ultimately, their skin touching the butttons and the handset..

MRSA
Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus

It truly now is a scandal and the Government need to be held responsible!

By: Refill your laser printer man

Refill your laser printer man — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:15:43 +0000

If I start oin about these rip off merchants, I will end up needing a new keyboard!!! I just called ofcom and lodged my complaint so i recommend everyone reading this who has not yet done so also di it because they are monitoring this situation. Patientline have no reason to charge the prices they do. Also I called the Department of Health, the operator there told me I am far from the first person to phone them about this, He agreed with me about their prices and told me they do not have control, it is actually down to the individual trust. I called my Trust, Royal Hampshire County hospital and asked to speak to the department that deals with contracting the Patientline. I got through to voicemail and asked for someone to call me back. A nice chap did and turns out he works for patientline and not the trust. I told him that Patientline are idiots, There are 6 beds in my wifes bay and only she is using the patientline. I explained that they were cutting their own throats because if they charged reasonable rates, people would actually use it instead of not use it. I think someone else above pointed this out. One of my sayings is, It is better to have 10% of a million than 100% of F@@k all. So what patientline are doing in their business wisdom is cutting their nose to spite their face. Charge £3.50 for 24 hours TV and have 1 out of 10 people use it equaling a revenue of £3.50 instead of charging £1 for 24 hours TV and having 6 out of 10 people use it a revenue of £6. It is not Rocket Science is it????
in fact, Charge £0.50 per 24 hours TV and have 9 out of 10 people use it gives you a revenue of £4.50 instead of £3.50 even a pound is still a pound expecially when you consider the traffic through a hospital!

Bla bla bla. You admitted to hospital for tests that will last 4 or 5 hours, Having a baby etc. You are not staying 24 hours so you will not pay £3.50 for TV but you might pay 50p.. I rest my case your honour!
I think the people who make the pricing decisions at patientline need to find a job in a burger joint!

OK so back to what I was going to originally tell you.

The guy who phoned me back from patientline actually off the record agreed with me on the pricing structure and said he tries to tell the directors over and over again but he may aswell bang his head against a wall. What he did do was wack some credit on my wifes phone so she could ring me back!! he he he.. What you get for complaining to them

I told him, if they were not greedy and didnt want to take 49p per minute, I would not have refused to call but if they had said it will cost me 10p a minute, I would have probably called and chatted sh;; for hours..

THEIR LOSS
Be safe in the knowledge that the downfall of every theif is their greed!

By: John Procter

John Procter — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:31:13 +0000

Suffered the outrageous charges for using Patientline when our daughter was in hospital. Essential supportive calls menat we had no option.
Also, and of much wider concern is that the bedside equipment is not hygienic. As well as not included in normal ward cleaning schedules, earphone sponges are not changed when patients change. Now that is serious when considering the issue of serious infections blighting the NHS.

By: Frances

Frances — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:04:30 +0000

Picking up on your advice to complain, complain,complain, please add my two pennyworth (oh that this was the price of a call!).

Patientline’s recorded message going just over one minute is a cynical strategy induced only by profit. I attempted to call my brother 43 times over a 2 week period but only got to speak to him once. Sadly he died last week and getting a phone bill with over £60 charged to patientline just rubs salt in the wound. I have just rung Ofcom to log a complaint but thereis no on-going enquiry at the moment. They informed me that only when sufficient numbers of similar complaints are logged will an enquiry be triggered.

By: sjhoward.co.uk » Patientline goes into administration: Few tears shed

sjhoward.co.uk » Patientline goes into administration: Few tears shed — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:21:27 +0000

[...] posts on Patientline – dating back as far as 2005 – received numerous comments complaining about the [...]

By: Abuelodesam

Abuelodesam — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:12:10 +0000

Re: Patientline. After waiting 44 days without response ( apart from standard auto generated reply ) to my request for a £5 refund, I sent off another e-mail demanding action on this matter. I was very pleasantly suprised to receive a personal reply, within 15 minutes from a Customer Liason Officer called Pauline Johnston. She was deeply apologetic that the matter had not been dealt with while she was away on annual leave.The matter is now resolved and I must give credit when due, especially as this was today- Bank Holiday Monday! Well done Pauline.

By: sjhoward

sjhoward — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:28:59 +0000

Jane – congratulations, I’m really glad to see that you got a result. Thanks for letting us know, and I hope it will inspire others to continue to pursue their own cases.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:04:57 +0000

Further to my initial posting re Renal Dialysis Patientline charges – I got a result! Patientline charged the usual daily rate for a 4 hour period of use, but after complaining and complaining thay now offer Renal Dialysis users in our hospital a rate of £3.50 for a WEEKLY hire of 3X5 hour dialysis sessions. It is still expensive for the freeview service that they offer, but it is a lot cheaper than the £8.90 thst we paid originally!
I just hope other Renal Patients nationally are offered this service.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:38:33 +0000

There is no defence to a private company simply stealing money from sick patients by demanding that they pay for a card, simply to find the unit by their bedside is faulty and has de-credited all the money without being able to provide the service they have paid for. This is clearly in breach of the Sale of Goods and Services Act, and as such I shall be complaining to the Trading Standards office.

In addition, there was no one availbale to deal with the situation from Patientline, and it was left to over worked nurses to try to resolve the problem whilst the patient became increasingly stressed out that her money had been taken away.

By: iris

iris — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 22:01:22 +0000

i cannot believe the complaints against patientline, u should think about how u can afford to use the bedside unit, if phones are too dear ask your family to phone ward staff as they always been able to, or if they phone your bedside keep calls brief, if you want tv you now have a choice of 3 days or 5 days which works out cheaper, i canny understand why everyone is so negative towards the bedside unit, think about the cost involved in fitting these, if you want to go back to the old way with tv in sittting rooms it wont cost you anything but you have to watch what everyone else watches, you can use payphones to phone out theyre in everyward still, but i am happy to pay for tv at my bedside, i dont have highly paid job but i can still afford to pay for luxury of having tv at my bed, i dont feel the need to compain to the staff like most patients, i have chosen to use tv, like you can choose not to, i think trusts should put tv in sitting room for patients who dont want to pay and that would cut out complaints, but i am happy to pay for mine