Patientline Protest May 1st

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I feel sorry for those in hospital at the moment who are effectively being held to ransom by the money makers at Patientline, and the stupid price they are increasing phone calls for.

As well as this, the cost of TV is paid for over a 24 hour period - not 24 hours of viewing, but 24 hours which starts when you activate the credit, and ticks down even when the TV is off. Yet all the ward TV's have been removed, so there's no free TV if things are a bit tight for you. The irony of this is such profiteering is happening in a public sector building, funded on our tax money, for the good of all, yet this scheme is allowing shareholders to profit!

As a result, I'd like to propose something and see what others think. From midnight on 1st May, for 24 hours, patients are encouraged not to buy TV for that day, and they don't make outgoing calls on their Patientline telephones or use the internet. Anyone not in hospital can support it by not calling a Patientline telephone number which also profits the company.

I'm expecting some people to say 'what if the person is really ill' etc, but we have to take a stand at some point, otherwise this company is going to hold its captive audience to ransom.

Would you support a day of action on 1st May against Patientline's price increases?

Mrs_B_12

I think the incoming call charges are horrendous but otherwise you get the service you pay for. For the daily charge you get to watch your own personal tv, chose what you want to watch and when. You no longer have to sit and either watch something that someone else has put on a communal tv either without sound or sound drowned out. You don't get constantly disturbed by people turning up the tv when you want to sleep. Another bonus is being able to put the radio on quietly at night to drown out the general ward sounds.

I had two spells in hospital recently bedridden and without the personal tv and phone it would have been a nightmare. The nursing staff are already rushed off their feet so can't take people to the payphones all the time.

When it comes down to it people don't have to pay for the tv, they don't have to use it to make phonecalls. In an emergency hospital staff can contact relatives and family can call the ward to check up on the person staying in.

mountainofdebt

Can someone tell me if it is true that mobile phones no longer interfere with hospital equipement.

TwistedPsycho

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Can someone tell me if it is true that mobile phones no longer interfere with hospital equipement.

Being a voluntery worker within the NHS, I often find doctors, nurses, porters using mobile phones, so with all due respect to anyone who has anything to do with the study, I do have my doubts.

With respect to the patientline problems, the hospital radio station that I work with have expressed grave concerns that they are going to lose PatientLine and then have no way of staying open.

soolin

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Can someone tell me if it is true that mobile phones no longer interfere with hospital equipement.

The never really did...as twisted Psycho says staff especially senior clinicians have been using them in patient areas for years.

The very old models, now obsolete were considered dangerous as so little were known about them, but the newer ones can be used everywhere except near ultra sensitive machiney like in SCBU.

Soo

longforgotten

Cityslicker I think it's a great idea.

Bunny

I work at a hospital and we usually let patients use their mobiles, unless someone next to them is very ill and has quite a bit of machinery attached, like ECG machines, the ironic thing is, although we let patients use them, the reception on the ward is rubbish And yes i'm forever putting patient line down, it costs a bomb.

changkra

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Can someone tell me if it is true that mobile phones no longer interfere with hospital equipement.

You are correct partly. Do not have a phone switched on in maternity, A&E ex ray, HDU and ICU the rest are all ok. The info was published in 1995 and costs too much to update so it still says th same. My niece is a biomedical scientist and attended a lecture at the hospital on technology and this is what was said. I left my phone switched on in the stroke unit last year and all the nurses had too.

LittleVoice

And you don't need to turn your mobile phone off when you are at a petrol station - sparks don't jump from your mobile to ignite the petrol fumes.

ohdearme_2

The mobiles you see doctors and consultants use are very low powered and are based around an internal network within a hospital.
Normal mobiles transmit a very strong signal when trying to connect, and even when connected the RF field strengh is around 400V/meter. A lot of electronic equipment can operate with around 3V/meter, so the chances of interference can be high, which is why mobiles can't be used in certain areas (although they have never, yet, brought down a plane, interferred with the readings on petrol pumps etc etc)

asea

but how would the company recover their costs in updating & maintaining their systems?

(just curious as they have spent millions updating their systems)

surely if there is any protest it should be aimed at the government for not providing these things themselves for patients or subsidising them (if they needed to)