Patient Line is a disgusting disgrace Blog Discussion

Fran

DrFluffy wrote:

The prices are shocking, but there are concessions - children, the elderly and people in hospice/long term care do not pay.
The way I look at it is would you rather the NHS be paying for patient X to watch TV, or for patient Y to recieve expensive treatment for breast cancer... It's a hospital not an entertainments complex...PS - the hospitals do not profit from them... Patientline do.

You can't make comparisons like that, it's like saying if you allow older people concessions on the buses then your bins won't be emptied. Different pots.

Patient Line is a commercial venture and a luxury... thankfully we are a nation who would rather use its very limited NHS resources to treat people rather than entertain them

Entertaining is an extremely important part of a patient's recovery by mood improvement and also distraction from pain.

So is talking to relatives and friends.

DrFluffy

you can make comparisons like that - at the end of the day, a hospital is a hsoiptal. There were no TVs in wards 20 years ago, outcomes were not different. Talking face to face witha volunteer or member of staff is far, far more beneficial than watching TV. Most patients should be being encouraged to get up and about - stop DVTs etc... Not to lie languishing in bed, watching TV. There is almost always a pay phone near by too...

BTW - I've yet to work on a ward where a patient who couldn't afford it was not allowed to bring in a portable TV from home...

bethom

When OH went into hospital recently mobiles were in use all the time. Even staff were seen using them in the corridors.

Obviously they arn't allowed in certain area's, like near heart machines etc, but they can be used elsewhere. OH called me a few times from the corridor, and when I was in there I had mine on in the corridors waiting for a call to say he was back from his op. Even when he was in bed after the op and I had gone home the very kind staff found him some phonecards with a few pence on so he could call me, that other patients had left behind cos they hadn't used them all.

I think hospitals should have a pot of them if patients don't use up all their money to pass onto others, but I would think perhaps that most don't as that isn't getting them extra money.

I think it is wrong to charge so much to call someone in hospital, a soothing voice from someone who cannot be there with them can make them feel so much better and even help them into an earlier recovery to free up beds and help ease a little of the congestion.

terriblesaver

PATIENTLINE .... HMMM.

I worked in recruitment for 10 years and for 18 months we supplied staff here - we had to take them off site regularly as they never paid their bills ... always used to say they didn't have the money ..... oh ha ha ha. Thats why the rich get richer and the poor go into liquidation

poorbutrich

Just wanted to say to Martin that I hope your Dad gets better soon.

Vickylin

I used patientline to phone up my friend in hospital last year. I used it about 3 times, thought it would cheer her up knowing how boring it can be in hospital. My bill came to £15. Its my own fault for not finding out but at no point did I know what price per minute I was paying or I would have been a lot more prudent.

Lesson learnt.

JenIttels

When my mother was in hospital she gave me her patientline number (or whatever it was that i needed) and warned me the prices were insanely high and suggested I not use it. Obviously I wanted to hear from her so sucked up the charges and rang her but the whole time i was speaking to her she was trying to keep the conversation short so that the call didn't cost me too much

It was a while ago now but i seem to remember that we weren't allowed to phone the ward and get put through to her (though i think we could leave messages) - we could only use patient line.

Hope your dad is ok.

5hreek

Fran wrote:

5hreek,

Those figures are totally meaningless to me. Where are they from? What "investigation" did you do and what sources did you use? What is your interest in it?

Fran - the weblink i provided is to the patient line financial figures for the last 5 years (that's the sum of my research). Those figures state that Patient Line has made an operating loss for the last 5 years - and actually that loss has been increasing every year.

The reason I say it might be creative accounting is that their figure for "Earnings Before Interest, Tax, etc" (EBIT) is always positive - so they're losing money because they pay tax, interest on loans and other stuff that isn't really to do with running the hospital systems - it's to do with running a business. I didn't look at how much the directors pay themselves but I'm sure it's a healthy salary. If you look at their share price, it's also dived from around 60 to less than 10 in about a year. As I also said, someone who understand all this accounting stuff better than me could probably give a better answer - but I'm just trying to contribute to the debate.

I have no interest whatsoever in the company, other than - like Martin and Spook - had to use them when I was in hospital, or family were in hospital. It's certainly better than the shared TV option, but I agree that the incoming call charges are shocking - better to buy the patient credits and get them to call you back.

And - I really hope Martin's dad is OK.

littlemissmoney

5hreek wrote:

Patient Line has had and operating loss for the last 5 years - someone more financially astute than me can comment here but it's either a rubbish business or creative accounting.

5hreek, when figures are written in brackets that means they are negative. And a negative loss is a profit. So after tax in 2005 they made £12.085 million profit. Creative accounting ay

dmg24

littlemissmoney,

5hreek is correct, I can see what you mean by the way they have presented the figures as a double negative, but they are definitely representing a loss. I've double checked by doing a quick Google on it and it is definitely a loss.