Hospital charges for TV and Phone

[Vlad_Dracul]

Originally Posted by Salu

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6524545.stm

Our Trust has this installed and all I ever hear are complaints about it. About extortionate charges mostly and complaints about having to pay to watch TV.

Anyone else have experience of them? Have you stayed in hospital and have used them?

What do you think ought to happen when in hospital though? Free TV & low call charges? Use your own mobiles?

Actually mobiles don't really have as much effect on hospital equipment as you may expect. Sure some things are effected and some fire alarms but not to the point that you need to turn your phone off whenever you are in the vicinity of a hospital. In fact you have to be within 1 metre of the device that a mobile may effect for any effect to be noticed.

There has been much talk of this lately and it was one of the subjects for discussion on Talk Radio UK.

Strangely it all seems rather simple to me. The NHS is not free of charge as people continue to maintain. It is free at point of use. The only people for whom it is truly free are the terminally useless and other groups who have never paid substantial amounts of tax and national insurance.

Now then, the NHS is there to provide health services. It is not there to provide car parking, telephone and other media services.

They have therefore contracted in these services from other providers who,since they are not charities, hope to make a return on their investment.

That is all that is happening. Outside providers are providing premium services for those who want them and charging for those services. I will accept that the charges are extortionate in some cases so the answer then is dont use them. But then, what other choice is there?. Well i can see no reason why people cannot use their mobiles in hospitals as long as they do not cause undue annoyance to others. Perhaps there should be a stipulation that they may only be used in day/common rooms?.

Televisions? well if people bring their own in there are issues with safety,accomodating them,portable appliance testing,cost of power used etc. No doubt we would have some chav propping a 42 inch plasmoh on the end of the bed!

As an aside issue,perhaps the NHS needs to address the way they accomodate patients? Why for example are patients expected to be undressed,get in their PJ's and lie around in bed for most of the day? What is all that about? The perpetration of the age old ward system. Many of those people could dress during the day and mobilise around the hospital and just re-appear at their hospital beds or at various departments when treatment is scheduled. There could be all sorts of advantages to such a system.

[c1rcle]

Who do you class as the terminally useless & what criteria do you base your decision on? What do you suggest we should do with this surplus population? a mass cull perhaps? do you intend to pull the trigger or push the button to end them?

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by c1rcle

Who do you class as the terminally useless & what criteria do you base your decision on? What do you suggest we should do with this surplus population? a mass cull perhaps? do you intend to pull the trigger or push the button to end them?

Stop picking on one tiny little throwaway comment and address the main points!

---------- Post added at 17:12 ---------- Previous post was at 17:07 ----------

Originally Posted by dooper786

Now then, the NHS is there to provide health services. It is not there to provide car parking, telephone and other media services.

But it's not there to make money out of those things either!

That is all that is happening. Outside providers are providing premium services for those who want them and charging for those services.

I hardly call a car park or a telephone a premium service. More like a lifeline to some comforting chat and visits.

Well i can see no reason why people cannot use their mobiles in hospitals as long as they do not cause undue annoyance to others.

Tell that to the many and varied nurses who have accused me of having a mobile switched on in my p

Why for example are patients expected to be undressed,get in their PJ's and lie around in bed for most of the day? What is all that about? The perpetration of the age old ward system. Many of those people could dress during the day and mobilise around the hospital and just re-appear at their hospital beds or at various departments when treatment is scheduled. There could be all sorts of advantages to such a system.

'Course, that might increase the spread of infections......

[c1rcle]

I don't need to address the main points, they've been done better than I could hope to by plenty of others already & it's just that sort of throwaway comment that starts wars.

As I said earlier the hospitals are there to treat sick people nothing more, if they're not making money from the phones & TV stop providing them, patients managed quite well without them in the past, the last time I was in hospital I felt so rough I didn't care whether there was a tv on the planet let alone by my bed.

[Stuart C]

Originally Posted by dooper786

As an aside issue,perhaps the NHS needs to address the way they accomodate patients? Why for example are patients expected to be undressed,get in their PJ's and lie around in bed for most of the day? What is all that about? The perpetration of the age old ward system. Many of those people could dress during the day and mobilise around the hospital and just re-appear at their hospital beds or at various departments when treatment is scheduled. There could be all sorts of advantages to such a system.

Some hospitals allow patients (where possible) to go to various places around the hospital. Most, in my limited experience. They don't force you to stay in bed unless there is a practical reason to do so.

---------- Post added at 17:45 ---------- Previous post was at 17:37 ----------

Originally Posted by dooper786

That is all that is happening. Outside providers are providing premium services for those who want them and charging for those services. I will accept that the charges are extortionate in some cases so the answer then is dont use them. But then, what other choice is there?. Well i can see no reason why people cannot use their mobiles in hospitals as long as they do not cause undue annoyance to others. Perhaps there should be a stipulation that they may only be used in day/common rooms?.

Televisions? well if people bring their own in there are issues with safety,accomodating them,portable appliance testing,cost of power used etc. No doubt we would have some chav propping a 42 inch plasmoh on the end of the bed!

Hospitals previously did state a maximum size (usually 14 inches) for TVs.

As for "premium services" such as phones, car parks and TVs. Well, I agree that some charge should be made for the car park, but phones and TVs *are* a lifeline in hospital. Often, patients in hospital cannot do a lot, and if they are in long term (like my sister who was in for over 3 months), the TV and phone become a lifeline. Try living without a TV and phone, and with limited contact from family and friends (after all, we all work, and some wards still restrict visiting hours) for 3 months.

[bonzoe]

Last time I was in hospital as an in-patient, the League of Friends provided at least 1 TV per ward, often in a common room, and there was a Payphone available. Much better IMO.

PatientLine seems to be the result of the Government "improving the services of the NHS". Pity they didn't consult the people it affects.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by c1rcle

stop buying large rocks for £100,000 & pay doctors & nurses what they deserve too.

Wasn't that paid for with a legacy that was specifically bequeathed for the purchase of art? In which case what else were they supposed to do?

[Xaccers]

If memory serves, the £150K multi coloured cone outside the IoW hospital which was supposed to rotate but broke after a day or so came out of the hospital's own money.

[SMG]

The idea of a dedicated TV, phone etc at each bed is a great Idea. Unfortunately, its also a giant rip-off. To charge 50p pm to call it is a joke. They are simply relying on peoples good nature to inquire about their loved ones.

[Vlad_Dracul]

Originally Posted by c1rcle

Who do you class as the terminally useless & what criteria do you base your decision on? What do you suggest we should do with this surplus population? a mass cull perhaps? do you intend to pull the trigger or push the button to end them?

I fear you may have misjudged me rather prematurely.

I can give examples of those who i consider fall into the terminally useless category,others may be able to add to it.

(1)Those who have decided that living on benefits is a lifestyle choice and all that nastiness relating to working for a living is not for them.

(2) Those who hide behind their doctors, pretending to be oh so ill when in fact they are bone idle and scared stiff of work.

(3) The state funded queen bees who live like fleas on the backs of the taxpayer,dropping offspring without let or hindrance,often fathered by ill bred,ill educated dolts in baseball caps who hang around leeching off brainless scrubbers such as these.

I DO NOT include.

(1)Those who are of retirement ages,who have done work and now hope for an enjoyable and reasonably prosperous retirement

(2)Those who are so unwell due to illness/disability that they are practically unemployable in any role

(3) Economic migrants who do work,within the system,paying their dues to the taxman and this country which gives them shelter.

Oh i almost forgot to say how i would deal with them. I would serve them sufficient notice, say 6 months, that at a certain date,their state income would be severely curtailed and therefore they would need to seek work. I would ensure the system facilitated them in this and therefore if at the end of the notice period,they had found no work,they would just have to starve. Either not or perhaps we could have state work houses?

[brundles]

Thought I'd bring this thread back given it includes discussion on the PatientLine charges that have ead to this

[j52c]

I feel sorry they have money problems, I don't think........

There used to be a tv on every ward in both our hospitals, all donated free by local people, then this crowd came in and started to rip the patients off with their outrages prices.

Serves em right.

[alferret]

Posted in the right place now

[RANT]

Unfortunately my mother had a fall and broke her hip. She was obviously hospitalised for 3 weeks after surgery.
Whilst there she had the use of paitentline and as a pensioner not to flush, anyway I understand that a company that goes in and installs services needs to recoup their outlay.
What I don’t get is how they can charge when the call hasn’t been connected.
It takes 92 seconds from the automated answer to the call going to not answered (mum not picking up) and for each time I have been charged £2:00.
Surely they only provide a service once the call has been answered. Therefore the 60 seconds of “welcome to so and so, service not provided by NHS blah, blah, blah calls charged at 50p pm at all times etc� and the 32 seconds to ring out shouldn’t be charged but only after the call has been connected should the call be charged.
What an absolute rip off, totally disgusted with their immoral stance over charging whilst not connected.

[/RANT]

[Nidge]

Originally Posted by alferret

Posted in the right place now

[RANT]

Unfortunately my mother had a fall and broke her hip. She was obviously hospitalised for 3 weeks after surgery.
Whilst there she had the use of paitentline and as a pensioner not to flush, anyway I understand that a company that goes in and installs services needs to recoup their outlay.
What I don’t get is how they can charge when the call hasn’t been connected.
It takes 92 seconds from the automated answer to the call going to not answered (mum not picking up) and for each time I have been charged £2:00.
Surely they only provide a service once the call has been answered. Therefore the 60 seconds of “welcome to so and so, service not provided by NHS blah, blah, blah calls charged at 50p pm at all times etc� and the 32 seconds to ring out shouldn’t be charged but only after the call has been connected should the call be charged.
What an absolute rip off, totally disgusted with their immoral stance over charging whilst not connected.

[/RANT]

When my dad was in Kings Mill a few times before he died he always used to moan about the Patientline and the prices they charged, when he phoned my mum in the morning to aske her to vring some stuff in for him it used to drain his credit from the card, when my mum used to phone him it used to cost her a fortune from a landline.

A few weeks after my dad passed away there was a programme about them on one of the consumer programmes.