Extortion in the NHS

[davif]

I won't even go into the parking issue because I am sure you all know it but my mother was admitted into hospital yesterday and I had a shock I wasn't expecting. Nice new console by her bed and no old tv in the corner to fight over but wait for it £12:50 for 6 days use of the console for TV or 'TV rental' as they call it. or £2.50 for 2 hours use. My mother is a pensioner !! she thinks this is enough for nearly 3 meals and she is a tele addict(she would be the first to admit this) She was so dissapointed and I am blisteringly angry at this. I've seen this sort of captive extortion in hotels but you just say ok 'won't be going there again' but in hospital !! She didn't have a choice.

[craigwalsh]

I had the same experience when my wife was in the hospital.

The telephone system also provided the direct-to-bed telephone line. But the calls were to an expensive premium rate number when I called her from outside the hospital. And the outbound calls were very expensive.

I brought her a cellphone. At first the nurses said the cellphone would "interfere with our electronic equipment." I politely asked why all of the doctors seemed to be using cellphones. I was told that their cellphones had been specially "checked" to be sure that they didn't cause any problems with the "sensitive electronic equipment."

I offered to have my wife's cellphone similarly checked. Could they please tell me where these "checks" took place. Nobody seemed to know. All these telephones had been "checked" mysteriously, by some unseen presence.

When I tried to get a refund for the unused credit on the television/telephone console, I was told they didn't do refunds. The surplus funds were credited to some sort of nurses' fund. A fund that the nurses had never heard about. When I told the telephone/television company that I would just ask my credit card company to charge back the purchase, they grumbled and refunded the credit balance.

If the extortionate payment for TV and telephone really went to the benefit of the NHS, I wouldn't mind (provided arrangements were made for pensioners, etc.). But I suspect it's just another "private initiative" where some company makes large profits --- while the NHS struggles (literally, if the newspaper is to be believed) to purchase pens and pencils.

[paul]

Why do you think there are notices all around hospitals telling you not to use mobile phones. The myth is that mobiles interfere with medical equipment. Yes, if you hold a mobile right up against an ecg machine or a CRT monitor it will interfere and there was some story about an infusion pump rate being altered by a phone right up against it but in practice this is not a problem and, in fact, the walkie talkies the hospital porters carry around are many times more powerful than mobiles. The truth is that the trusts were forced by the Government to provide bedside phone, TV and internet access to every patient leading up to the day when patients will be able to access their own medical records while in hospital. This was a huge finacial cost (£3000 per bed) and the trusts negotiated with private companies to put this equipment in in return for exclusive provision of all phone services. To protect their investment the private companies insist that mobile phones are banned. Private companies also run parking in most hospitals. I received an invitation from a financial adviser to invest in a hospital car parking company because it was seen as a surefire money making scheme. Be careful what you wish for, patients demanded they be treated as customers and now they really are- seen as a source of profit by spivs and speculators.

[Mike]

Do any of our MP's read this?

I will be interested to hear from them, or see any comments from them.

[craigwalsh]

I wonder if MP's can read. :)

And what can they do? The NHS is just so huge --- and, in my opinion, so thorougly broken --- that I wonder if it can be fixed.

[jenny]

How interesting - I have always thought that parking charges in hospitals were a complete rip-off. Now it's phones. Next I suppose it will be meals. Actually, I think there is a case for charging for food in hospitals - if the money went back into patient care, that is.....

As far as patients "demanding" anything, I think in this country people are not nearly demanding enough which is why we have a state healthcare system that does not compare favourably with many in Europe. Who cares whether the patient is called a customer, a patient or any other terminology (no doubt far worse names exist). The semantics do not really matter. The reality is that people want be able to access good quality healthcare where there is some kind of accountability if things go wrong.

The patient is a very important stakeholder (arguably the most important) in the healthcare system yet has virtually no power. I think this leads to a healthcare system which is "self-servicing" and offers a poor quality of patient care.

[craigwalsh]

I love the old chestnut that using a mobile phone in a hospital will cause patients to die. The same mobile phones that will cause petrol stations to explode!

Paul is absolutely correct about the porters' walkie-talkies. They are far more powerful than any mobile phone.

When my wife was an inpatient in the Worcester Royal Infirmary I was politely told I couldn't use my mobile phone. I asked why doctors could use theirs, and I was told that the doctors' phones had been "specially tested." So I thought, "Great, I'll have mine specially tested, too." I asked several doctors where they went for the "test," only to be met by blank stares.

In the future, when I used my mobile phone, I simply explained to nurses (etc.) that it was OK --- my phone had been "specially tested" just like the doctors' phones.

I love the urban legends website. Their posting on this subject is called "Sick Call" and can be found here (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/hospital.asp). The conclusion is from the venerable Mayo Clinic:
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., decided to find out what would happen if they used a cellphone close to some 200 different medical devices. In the first half of [2006], they used two different models of Nokia phone to perform tests in 75 patient rooms at their facility. They also tested two BlackBerry models. The paper published in the March [2007] issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings says there was no "clinically important interference" when cellphones were used in a "normal" way.
I just had a thought. You can become a minister for free --- and online --- at the Universal Life Church (http://theuniversallifechurch.org/). I am so ordained, and have a wonderful laminated plastic card that says "Clergy" on it, along with my name. In the States, after filling out a bit of paperwork, it would be perfectly legal for me (ordained via the internet) to perform weddings.

I wonder if I can start an online store to "test" mobile phones for hospital usage? And issue impressive plastic cards with the "test" results? :)

[zippyRN]

Why do you think there are notices all around hospitals telling you not to use mobile phones. The myth is that mobiles interfere with medical equipment. Yes, if you hold a mobile right up against an ecg machine or a CRT monitor it will interfere and there was some story about an infusion pump rate being altered by a phone right up against it but in practice this is not a problem and, in fact, the walkie talkies the hospital porters carry around are many times more powerful than mobiles.


4w vs 2 w and only transmitting when the button is pressed rather than transmitting all the time ...

older equipment and older phones is more prone to being affected , howeverthe current evidence base suggests otherwise hence the much reduced restricted zones in hospitals currently ...

however the use of mobile phones in hospital is also a matter of common decent behaviour ... it's like the old dom joly sketch with the man bellowing i nto the giant mobile in the most inappropriate situatiosn imaginable...


The truth is that the trusts were forced by the Government to provide bedside phone, TV and internet access to every patient leading up to the day when patients will be able to access their own medical records while in hospital. This was a huge finacial cost (£3000 per bed) and the trusts negotiated with private companies to put this equipment in in return for exclusive provision of all phone services. To protect their investment the private companies insist that mobile phones are banned. Private companies also run parking in most hospitals. I received an invitation from a financial adviser to invest in a hospital car parking company because it was seen as a surefire money making scheme. Be careful what you wish for, patients demanded they be treated as customers and now they really are- seen as a source of profit by spivs and speculators.

these hugely costly services had to be paid for somehow...

you will also find that those hospitals without bedhead TV and phone have simialrly extensive (or none extensive) mobile phone use restrictions

in terms of hospital parking there are a couple of issues at least

1. NHS money cannot be used for the provision of parking

2. people want secure parking

3. there is huge misuse of hospital parking in some places

4. every hospital i am aware of does have arrangements for
I. long term stay patients and their relatives
II. patients attending for day case ttreatments on a regular basis
III. refund of public transport fares for those on certain benefits to vist the hospital for treatment or consultation
IV patient transport services , free at the point of delivery for those who have a clinicla need for transport ( and where clinically necessary for an escort to travel as well)

[paul]

4w vs 2 w and only transmitting when the button is pressed rather than transmitting all the time ...

older equipment and older phones is more prone to being affected , howeverthe current evidence base suggests otherwise hence the much reduced restricted zones in hospitals currently ...

however the use of mobile phones in hospital is also a matter of common decent behaviour ... it's like the old dom joly sketch with the man bellowing i nto the giant mobile in the most inappropriate situatiosn imaginable...




Whether it's continuous or intermittent is irrelevant. It would be more difficult to deal and diagnose the cause with an intermittent disruption to equipment if such actually occurred.

I agree there are reasons for not using mobile phones in hospitals. The main one is probably the development of camera and video phones and the possibility of breeching patient privacy. Having said this I seem to remember on a previous posting that our host Craig had videoed a visit to Worcester Hospital. Certainly I would not like to be next to someone who is on the phone all day- its bad enough on the trains but this is not the reason they are banned. The reason given is a lie and the true reason is to protect a monopoly. Being lied to is what we object to.
Craig- doctors are banned from using them too but most ignore the ban knowing that the trust would have to reveal the true reason for the ban if they decided to discipline staff.

[craigwalsh]

I seem to remember on a previous posting that our host Craig had videoed a visit to Worcester Hospital

No, I didn't video the Worcester Hospital --- I just obtained (after initial refusals on the part of the hospital) a copy of the video from their own security cameras.

I agree entirely with Paul about "breaching patient privacy." As I saw with the security camera footage the NHS is doing this 24/7. How hard is it for some minimum wage rent-a-cop working for an NHS sub-contractor to burn a copy of a surveillance video of a famous patient and sell it to a Red Top newspaper for the equivalent of a year's wages?

I also fully agree about not wishing "to be next to someone who is on the phone all day." But this could happen with the bedhead TV/phone systems.

I once sat on a long flight to Hawaii next to an evangelical Christian who wanted to convert me. I just wanted to watch the in-flight movie or sleep. :)

Yes, Paul --- "The reason given is a lie and the true reason is to protect a monopoly. Being lied to is what we object to."

Which is why my mobile telephone "certification" scheme is so elegant. Countering one lie with the bigger lie.