SAYNOTO0870.COM - NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investigation

NonGeographicalMan

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #285 - Jan 26^th, 2006 at 8:14am

pw4 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2006 at 12:21am:

8am - 9am

Your information is correct, I was wrong. The TVs do come on at 8am. But the patients can turn them off.

I long ago realised that most marketing and sales people are not stupid but just eternally amoral and economical with the truth. Thus even though I have never seen a Patientline terminal inside a hospital it was obvious to me this would be the truth of the free hour business.

A marketing man's mind would run "turn the telly on at the start of the day to remind them it is there but for a program nobody would actually pay to watch and then hope the subliminal message that tv is available will prey on the minds of those who have not yet signed up for Patientline during the course of the day"...............

If they cut the television watching charge to £1.99 a day or £9.99 a week and changed their incoming call charge to 10p per minute I think most of Patientline's public unpopularity would drop away and there would be much higher uptake of the television service. Also having a lower charge to watch the Freeview type channels and then a higher subscription to watch channels that are part of a cable or Sky subscription package might be another astute marketing move on Patientline/Premier's part. So perhaps £1.99 a day or £9.99 a week would be for the Freeview type channels and £3.50 cover the addition of the premium pay channels.

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« Last Edit: Jan 26^th, 2006 at 8:15am by N/A »

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pw4

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #286 - Jan 26^th, 2006 at 11:17pm

Quote:

pw4 wrote on Jan 25^th, 2006 at 1:09am:

I have heard that the service is no longer supported and that no Patientline staff visit the site, so there is no phone service, and no TV or radio on any terminal that has stopped working or its PC needs rebooting.

So no patient ripoffs are any longer taking place at Redhill then it seems? Wink

I suspect that far fewer phone calls are being made by patients, and no direct calls are being made to them.

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pw4 Full Member Offline Posts: 130	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #287 - Jan 26^th, 2006 at 11:28pm Quote: DFCC IT wrote on Jan 18^th, 2006 at 9:36am: Some people think Patientline is a bad thing................I think it's a good thing. What do you think? What was the point of your post? Do you work for Patientline or Premier? I think some people aren't tall enough.
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NonGeographicalMan Ex Member	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #288 - Jan 27^th, 2006 at 9:15am pw4 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2006 at 11:28pm: I think some people aren't tall enough. Well I'm 1.90 metres tall as it happens. But I think you must have had something else in mind. I know not what though? Did it have something to do with "tall stories" perhaps?
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firestop Full Member Offline Do unto others, before they get a chance to do.... Posts: 164	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #289 - Jan 27^th, 2006 at 10:24am ...perhaps just increasing 'post-count' to hope to achieve some credibility
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bbb_uk

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #290 - Jan 27^th, 2006 at 4:50pm

Quote:

...Also having a lower charge to watch the Freeview type channels and then a higher subscription to watch channels that are part of a cable or Sky subscription package might be another astute marketing move on Patientline/Premier's part. So perhaps £1.99 a day or £9.99 a week would be for the Freeview type channels and £3.50 cover the addition of the premium pay channels.

That's a good idea.

I still think the £3.50 is not necessary even for the "premium" package but it would at least give patients a little more choice because not many people may want to watch one of the very, very few actual "premium" channels that Patientline/Premier carry.

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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #291 - Jan 27^th, 2006 at 5:25pm

bbb_uk wrote on Jan 27^th, 2006 at 4:50pm:

I still think the £3.50 is not necessary even for the "premium" package but it would at least give patients a little more choice because not many people may want to watch one of the very, very few actual "premium" channels that Patientline/Premier carry.

Just to clarify that I meant £1.99 per day for basic channels that are on Freeview and £3.50 a day for the whole lot including both premium and basic.

There was rather an amusing version of Ed Reardon's Week on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday in which he is in hospital awaiting a heart op and his son thoughtfully arranges for him to be transferred from the public ward to a private room and also arranges for him to have internet access so he can keep on working. After he leaves hospital he receives a £1,000+ bill for internet access charges. Clearly a sketch inspired by Patientline and other similar hospital comminications ripoffs..........

You can listen to this at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/edreardon.shtml

Its more than 20 minutes in to the half hour program that this item occurs.

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« Last Edit: Jan 27^th, 2006 at 5:36pm by N/A »

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idb

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #292 - Jan 31^st, 2006 at 12:40am

Patientscam's written evidence to the health select committee, dated Dec 7, 2005 can be read at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmhealth/815/815we25....

Appendix 2: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmhealth/815/815we26.... gives details of full charges:

CURRENT PATIENTLINE CHARGES TO PATIENTS

T1—all except five sites
TV
Patients aged 16 and under Free (until 9pm)
Patients aged 60 and over £3.50 for two days of TV (48 hours) or they can buy 2 hours of TV for £2
Patients aged 17-59 £3.50 for one day of TV (24 hours) or they can buy 2 hours of TV for £2
TV can also be purchased in:
3 days—£10
5 days—£15
7 days—£20
All patients All patients receive free:
Half an hour when signing-up
1 hour of TV every day
Telephone
Outgoing 10p a minute (minimum outgoing call charge is 20p).

All patients receive a free 20p credit to make a call when they first sign-up.

Calls to mobiles, international destinations and other networks may vary.

T2—all sites excluding Sunderland, plus five T1 sites
TV
Patients aged 16 and under Free (until 9pm)
Patients aged 60 and over £1.70 for one day of TV (24 hours)
Patients aged 15-59 £3.50 for one day of TV (24 hours)
All patients All patients receive free:
Half an hour when signing-up.
1 hour of TV every day.
Telephone
Outgoing 10p a minute (minimum outgoing call charge is 20p).

All patients receive a free 20p credit to make a call when they first sign-up.

Calls to mobiles, international destinations and other networks may vary.
Internet and email
All patients 20p per 5 minutes
Games
All patients 30p per game play

Sunderland (non-TV as other T2 sites
TV—channels 1-5
All patients Free (24 hours)
TV—all other channels
Patients aged 16 and under Free (until 9pm)
All other patients £1.90 for one day of TV (24 hours).
All patients All patients receive free:
Half an hour when signing-up
1 hour of TV every day[60]

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idb

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #293 - Jan 31^st, 2006 at 12:44am

Also in parliament, EDM #1413 at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmedm/60126e01.htm -

<<
1413 COST OF TELEPHONE CALLS TO PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL 18:1:06

Jessica Morden
Chris Bryant
Julie Morgan
Paul Flynn
Bob Russell
Peter Bottomley

* 57 (* The figure following this symbol is the total number of Members' names submitted in support of the Motion, including names printed for the first time in this paper)

Mr John Leech Mr Roger Williams Derek Conway
Mrs Siân C. James Mrs Janet Dean Jeff Ennis
Mr David Hamilton

That this House notes the exorbitant cost of incoming calls to patients in hospitals, which exploits family and friends keeping in touch with loved ones; supports the concerns of consumers about the prices charged by service providers Patientline and Premier, who can charge up to 49p per minute peak and 39p per minute off-peak; welcomes the investigation by Ofcom; and supports its recommendation that the Department of Health urgently review all aspects of the installation and operation of bedside telephone and entertainment systems in hospitals.
>>

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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #294 - Jan 31^st, 2006 at 12:57am

idb wrote on Jan 31^st, 2006 at 12:44am:

Also in parliament, EDM #1413 at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmedm/60126e01.htm -

You can view the full list of signatories to this motion at http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=29812%09%09%09%09%09%09%09&...

The number of signatories is similar to the anti 0870 and any BT Privacy ripoff motions although Lord Tyler's signature is surprisingly missing. However Messrs Bottomley, Cable, Durkan and Spink, who are all staunch anti 0870 campaigners, have again signed up to this one.

When I get a moment I will work out the BT Privacy ripoff and anti Patientline EDM signatories who have not signed the anti 0870 EDM motion and send them an email suggesting to them the merits of also signing the anti 0870 parliamentary petition.

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« Last Edit: Jan 31^st, 2006 at 12:58am by N/A »

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idb Supreme Member Offline Posts: 1,499 Miami, Florida, United States Gender:	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #295 - Feb 3^rd, 2006 at 10:15pm NGM, as someone with considerable knowledge on the internal workings of parliament, do EDMs ever achieve anything?
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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #296 - Feb 3^rd, 2006 at 10:31pm

idb wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2006 at 10:15pm:

NGM, as someone with considerable knowledge on the internal workings of parliament, do EDMs ever achieve anything?

It allowed us to identify those 40 or so MPs who originally spontaneously signed the motion on their own without haranging from any constituents. Thus we know those individuals are helpfully disposed to our cause. And do not forget that Ofcom is only accountable to the whole of Parliament collectively via the legislation it passed which controls Ofcom. Ofcom is not subject to an ombudsman and allegedly is not directly accountable to even government ministers although the government does seem to get a big say in the appointment of its Chairman and Chief Executive. Wink

Journalists regualrly scan EDM lists looking for interesting ones. If the matter seems important enough the government may decide to legislate or use its powers under a statutory instrument to do something.

An EDM that gets 400 or so signature is most likely to force the government to take action or bring forward new
legislation. Unfortunately this one is currently a long way short of that and languishing below half way point in terms of the league table of total EDM signatories per motion.

The fact that there are now three EDMs running which ultimately attack Ofcom's regulatory competence on telecoms issues must help. I am sure each government department has a civil servant assigned to trawl the EDM lists looking for EDMs that relate to the work of their department. So it is a good starting point to try to take the Parliamentary debate further.

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« Last Edit: Feb 3^rd, 2006 at 10:34pm by N/A »

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Tanllan Supreme Member Offline Posts: 797 Gender:	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #297 - Feb 14^th, 2006 at 12:04pm FT Tuesday 14 February, pp19 and 20, reports that the founder of Patientline "has added his support to Shore Capital's move to oust Derek Lewis as chairman."
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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga
Reply #298 - Feb 14^th, 2006 at 1:18pm

Tanllan wrote on Feb 14^th, 2006 at 12:04pm:

FT Tuesday 14 February, pp19 and 20, reports that the founder of Patientline "has added his support to Shore Capital's move to oust Derek Lewis as chairman."

What can be read into that though?

Is Lewis thought to have been greedy with deciding to use the 50p per minute 070 numbers for incoming phone calls? Clearly if they had used 0870 or even 0871 they could have avoided being singled out for bad publicity.

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Tanllan Supreme Member Offline Posts: 797 Gender:	Re: NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investiga Reply #299 - Feb 14^th, 2006 at 4:03pm Not sure that I can read anything into it; it was merely a pointer for info.
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