Patient Line is a disgusting disgrace Blog Discussion

bigjim86

Hapless wrote: »

It is when it is part of the contract between the hospital and patientline. (step FIL is a ward clerk)

No it isn't, I can assure you.

Hapless_2

bigjim86 wrote: »

No it isn't, I can assure you.

As you said maybe 6 years ago it was different!
We were handed a leaflet on admittance to the hospital telling us that Ward staff were no longer allowed to take and make telephone calls for patients as patients now had their own telephone supplied by patientline.

ryouga

bigjim86 wrote: »

I'd like to know when (as in time period) you actually worked in the call centre. The HR dept do their jobs very well as far as I can see. I think you forget that it's a 24hr on demand business and the HR dept, whilst not being perfect, have to put demand hours in where the demand is. And the prizes thing? When did you work there, 1992???

Nope I only left a few months ago, I wonder if your initials are AT as there was a butch !!!!! working there who bullied everyone.

As for the HR staff, the main one used to critisise me all time, after a team manager told me to fill in form in incorrectly(this was from the HR main one with black hair, other was polite and friendly)

Now Kym and Craig for managers were very friendly, cant honestly remember most of their names! the big built woman wasnt, the young female one who was tall and didnt eat after 3pm was nice, as was the older guy with the moustache and grey hair. Naomi when she was a team leader was great,cept she got a bit too deep in her job lol.

boogiemoog

My father was in the QMC at Nottingham and was recovering from brain surgery and was transferred from one ward to another. The Patientline staff would not leave him alone regardless. They are totally immoral and all they care about is making money. It is high time that these people were thrown out of hospitals and patients allowed to recover in peace.

Years ago we already had free hospital and local radio and we had TV lounge and if we did need to make a telephone call we could either have a telephone bought to the bed or use the one in the TV room or booth outside the ward. Patientline are 'a sick disgrace' and a rip off and obviously do not care at all about patients and should not be tolerated on any British NHS ward.

Thankfully the QMC were allowing patients to use mobile phones but Patientline employees were on patients backs after very serious operations. Who on earth needs the clown club around your bed when you have had your brains knocked about?

I have since wrote to Patientline and so far have not had a reply.. I am not at all surprised!!!:mad:

opinions4u

Does anybody know if you can press a button on your phone to skip past the introductory message?

northantsandy

With respect to the TV and Phone provision it's a question of choice. In the "good old days" there was a ward pay-phone wheeled around bed to bed and a day room with a tv in it. If they still exist, then the patient, in most cases, has a choice. However, at the QE in Birmingham the pay-phones and day-rooms have been done away with so there is no choice: you have to use the pay services. I'd question this as surely a monopoly is against EU law?

Parking? Well at the QE when the car parks were free, commuters filled them and caught the train into Birmingham - guilty as charged! Levying a charge meant that the car parks were available to visitors, but the costs are abhorrent. Have the NHS never head of validated parking? Immediate family and carers could have validated parking and the charges could be levied against occasional visitors,etc.

And sooooo don't get me started on PFI.....

MikeRG

I have just had a short stay in Colchester Hospital and Must say in passing, the patient care given by ward staff in Brighlingsea ward is second to none.

During my stay, I used the Patientline system. I elected to pay £10 to cover 5 days use. The £10 was then devided up and to my amazement, there was only £1 allocated to making outgoing calls. 10minutes at 10p per minute.

The TV content was acceptable, although my unit had a crackling sound problem.

The ability to phone home was good and I thought the 10p per minute was expectable given that the service was supplied by a third party.

The internet was virtualy unusable due to the high security settings that patientline have applied to the browser. Checking my email via my webmail client was not allowed and 5 of my regular sites, including my own, were also barred.

I didn't offer my incoming number for incoming calls because I was aware that the incoming charges were criminal and if my wife used it, I would end up paying the bill.

All in all, the facility is a good idea and is very usefull. If the technical problems and charges had been sorted out, patientline may not have been forced into administration. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/26/nhs.health)

It has been mentioned in this thread that patients should be encouraged to excercise and should not be in bed watching TV... I think we all agree with that but looking at this in reality, I don't think ward staff would appreciate patients wandering about the wards during the late evening when most people could be enjoying their favorite TV programme.

Lets hope that the company that takes over from Patientline gets it right and continues to offer this valuable service at a more realistic cost.

sharnad

MikeRG wrote: »

I have just had a short stay in Colchester Hospital and Must say in passing, the patient care given by ward staff in Brighlingsea ward is second to none.

During my stay, I used the Patientline system. I elected to pay £10 to cover 5 days use. The £10 was then devided up and to my amazement, there was only £1 allocated to making outgoing calls. 10minutes at 10p per minute.

The TV content was acceptable, although my unit had a crackling sound problem.

The ability to phone home was good and I thought the 10p per minute was expectable given that the service was supplied by a third party.

The internet was virtualy unusable due to the high security settings that patientline have applied to the browser. Checking my email via my webmail client was not allowed and 5 of my regular sites, including my own, were also barred.

I didn't offer my incoming number for incoming calls because I was aware that the incoming charges were criminal and if my wife used it, I would end up paying the bill.

All in all, the facility is a good idea and is very usefull. If the technical problems and charges had been sorted out, patientline may not have been forced into administration. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/26/nhs.health)

It has been mentioned in this thread that patients should be encouraged to excercise and should not be in bed watching TV... I think we all agree with that but looking at this in reality, I don't think ward staff would appreciate patients wandering about the wards during the late evening when most people could be enjoying their favorite TV programme.

Lets hope that the company that takes over from Patientline gets it right and continues to offer this valuable service at a more realistic cost.

Its £3 a day for the telly so did you have to get more vouchers

£10 didnt last me 5 days last time I was lucky if it lasted 2

Chappers53

I know it is a while (2006) since you ( Martin ) wrote your comments and maybe you have a valid point regarding incoming call charges. However, having set up a 5 day facility for my Mother-in-Law, we found that last night she was moved to another ward which did not have the tv/phone facilities. I decided to give Patientline a call from home and explaining the situation asked if the facility could be suspended until settled in a suitable ward. Following not too long a call I was credited in full as the system had not been used after we left yesterday afternoon. Also the costs for all the TV and films available to the patient together with free outgoing calls, if you organise things you pay no more than whatever you set up for the patient.

My personal experience says they do a good job when you are in a not such a nice place!! If you know what I mean.

Cheers

Chappers53

ali_r_2

from today for 2 weeks - patientline is running a promotion called wimbledon fortnight - whereby the patient can ring out to bt landline starting 01 , 02 , or 03 for free - its on the patientline website here:- http://www.patientline.co.uk/whats-new-and-future-plans/news-selection/hospedia-news/free-calls/