Patientline...

...seems to me to be nothing but a money-grabbing monster. The company has an exclusive contract with the NHS to provide TV, radio, telephone and internet to patients' rooms. However, the TV costs £3.50 a day (less if you're over 60 or in for more than 14 days, but if you're in for 70 days, as some people are on this unit, it would still cost you about £120 if you wanted a couple of hours TV every day, which is quite possible if you were stuck in a room here for that long), the phone costs 'approximately 10p/min' to phone out, and 39p or 49p per minute to call in, the radio has only a few channels with poor reception, they're not providing internet, the whole unit is often on the blink (as mine has been since I've been here), and they have the cheek to get angry if hospitals are therefore naturally inclined to provide their own alternative, or have been donated alternatives. Their literature talks about providing the best
possible service for patients, staff and everyone, but I can't see how they can possibly justify ripping people off quite so blatantly.

If someone is stuck in a hospital room for several weeks, looking after them doesn't mean giving them a phone that nobody could afford to ring for more than about two minutes, a TV that would bankrupt them (especially as they may well not be earning while ill), notional access to the internet that isn't set up, and all this regularly having technical problems anyway. If it all worked well, they could justify charging a small fee to cover the services and earn a little,
but surely their prices are just an abuse of the situation patients find themselves in? If I wanted to type up a blog entry like this, it would probably cost me about £1 (4p/min, and I tend to type these fairly slowly as, contrary to appearances, I think through what I want to say while keeping one eye on '100 Greatest Christmas TV moments'; what's more, the keyboard for the Patientline machine is minuscule, which would slow me down anyway but be particularly tricky with my peripheral neuropathy). I've no idea how many posts I've done now, but this would be a very expensive blog. Just to add to the evil of the company, the Ruth Myles Unit did have internet access in all the rooms, but was forced to stop offering it because of the exclusive contract with Patientline, who should therefore be providing it. I think they should be provided with a big slap, personally. It takes a lot to wind me up, but Patientline...
Grrrrrrrrrrrr...