More media coverage of the scammers:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1708213,00.html<<
A GROUP of private companies accused of charging patients and relatives exorbitant rates to use hospital phones and televisions are to be investigated by the communications regulator.
Ofcom will announce today that it is to examine charges levied by the companies, particularly for incoming calls to patients’ bedside phones, which can far exceed the cost of dialling Australia. [...]
The investigation, which could last several months, comes after an outcry this year over charges of up to 49p a minute for friends and relatives to phone an NHS hospital — when a peak rate call on a typical BT domestic line was just under 22p a minute. Watching a bedside television can also cost up to £3.50 a day.
Patientline — run by Derek Lewis, the former director-general of the Prison Service, — pledged to co-operate fully with Ofcom but believed the investigation would vindicate the terms of the licences and contracts required by the NHS. [...]
Rival companies such as Premier Managed Payphones, the Wandsworth Group and HTS, charge between £2.50 and £3 a day for television.
Premier charges 10p a minute for outgoing calls and up to 49p for incoming, while HTS charges 10p a minute to landline phones and 30p to mobile phones for outgoing calls.Patient associations have described the costs as prohibitively high, particularly for the large number of pensioners who end up in hospital for long periods of time.
They have also been highly critical of some of the sales tactics used by companies such as Premier, which was found to be recruiting sales personnel to encourage patients to purchase their services.
Mr Lewis said the solution to the issue of the cost of phone calls lay in the NHS taking advantage of the other applications offered by Patientline systems, including food ordering, patient surveys and access to clinical information.
“If the NHS uses these systems and pays a fair price, it can provide the basis for reducing the burden on friends and relatives,” he said. Among the benefits to the NHS were improved care, fewer medical errors and greater patient satisfaction, he added. [...]
Patientline, which provides media systems to more than 150 hospitals, charges callers 39p a minute off-peak and 49p at all other times. Outgoing calls are from 10p a minute.
A call to Australia during the day costs 22p a minute and phoning America is charged at 14p a minute. Daytime local and national calls from British Telecom’s standard “option one” package are charged at 3p a minute on weekdays.
Mobile telephones, an easier alternative, are prohibited by hospitals because they interfere with heart monitoring and testing equipment.
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NHS Patientline 49p per minute Ofcom Investigation (Read 541,779 times)
