MP Secures Promise For A Review Of Telephone Charges In Hospitals

Following representation from a pensioner in her constituency Warrington North MP HELEN JONES has questioned Health Minister Liam Byrne about the charges being levied by Patientline for telephone calls in and out of hospitals.

The Minister stated that he believed that outgoing calls cost 10p per minutes but HELEN JONES told the minister that her constituent was charged 49p per minute to ring her husband in Warrington hospital via Patientline and was forced to listen to a minute of blurb from Patientline before she was connected.  This charge is still made even if the patient is not there.  In addition it cost her husband 20p before he got through to her.   

The constituent’s husband had £5 left on his Patientline card when he was discharged from hospital but because he had paid for the card by cash he was unable to secure a refund.  He could have done so if he had paid by credit card.  He was told that he could save the card for any future stay at the hospital!

The MP asked:

"Does that not represent an exploitation of vulnerable people?"

and asked the minister to issue guidance to trusts on negotiating those contracts to ensure that patients are not exploited in this way. 

Liam Byrne replied by saying that the Department of Health has set up a review group to explore the issue of costs to users of those systems, including the price of incoming calls.  

Following the Commons exchange HELEN JONES said:

" I am pleased to learn that a review is underway.  It is simply not on to charge people over the odds in this way and it adds insult to injury for patients or their anxious relatives to have to listen,  and by charged,  to adverts before they are connected.  It is exploitation of the vulnerable in the worst possible way and should be stopped."