NHS call costs 'a tax on sickness'

Patientline, the biggest company providing TV and phone systems in hospitals, is now in a wrangle with the Government after increasing its bedside call charges from 10p a minute to 26p.

For people calling patients from outside hospital the cost is already 39p per minute off-peak and 49p a minute peak. The company came in for a barrage of criticism from patient groups and politicians, but said it was actually committed to reducing prices.

It said an original contract with the NHS had left it unable to make a profit and talks with the Department of Health "have been protracted, to the extent that Patientline has had to postpone a firm decision on reductions".

The Department of Health said discussions were ongoing but Patientline had "been unable to present a proposal which will be acceptable to the taxpayer, particularly when there are other bedside systems which offer a cheaper and simpler range of user-friendly services."

And it insisted that the matter was really one for local NHS trusts and the three companies supplying the systems - Patientline, Premier and HTS. Premier, which has around 11,000 sets at bedsides, said its outbound calls were 10p a minute, while current incoming calls were the same price as Patientline's. As shares in Patientline, whose systems are installed at more than 75,000 hospital bedsides, fell 6%, campaigners condemned the price hike.

Michael Summers, trustee of the Patients Association, said the costs were too high. "Patients are very concerned already and the proposed increase in percentage terms will mean that, in many, many cases, patients and their families will not be able to afford this.

"It is absolutely beyond the realm of payment for many patients. We are seeing an increasingly ageing population and many of these people will be on fixed incomes. It's too much and too expensive. These companies should not be targeting vulnerable and elderly people."

Mr Summers said people could call around the world for about half the cost of the 49p a minute charge. And he said a move last month by Health Minister Andy Burnham, when Mr Burnham said there was "no need" for hospitals to ban the use of mobile phones, could have made Patientline feel under pressure.

In a statement Patientline said: "Our charges are dictated by the Government's contract with Patientline, which means we have to fund and recover all installation (about £1 million per hospital) as well as the additional day-to-day running costs. Patientline has yet to make a profit due to this heavy investment programme and in order to make the reduced costs for TV, internet and games economically viable we have had to increase the cost of outgoing calls to 26p per minute from 10p for the time being."