Hospital Ielephone Lines

Not sure about the Republic of Ireland never used it but!!

In Uk Cheshire we have a hospital phoneside hook up.

Calls charged at a stupid 60p a minute rate then you phone all you hear is twaddle for at least three minutes or more that you have reached the hospital connection service. Ching!!

Then what you already know is told again. Ching!

Then you are informed this is the hook up for so and so which you knew anyways. Ching!

Is the rest of the UK similar??

 

Yes.

But at least you can use your mobile instead now.

 

These services are a real rip-off, but the NHS fell for the sales pitch when they were offered. Many places are back-tracking on the mobiles subject, even though there was a recent report that said there was no problem of interference with "hospital equipment".

We did have a problem years ago (it would have to be now!) at Haslar, but the interference came from a portable hand set phone rather than a mobile.

 

Just like the car parking at hospitals a bloody rip off and we just put up with it. I often wonder what is wrong with us Brits when we put up with such bare faced robbery by these fekin bandits.

 

It's because the NHS decided to save its own money by letting private companies run car parks and telephones, to give but two examples. Noone thought that the private companies would have only one priority - making money. Staff also have to pay to park at work. Another shortsighted NHS policy. Ho hum.

 

Just a thought angrydoc but who owns the land that these car parks are situated on, my suspicion is that it is us the taxpayer?

 

Usually its the NHS trust that owns the land.At our local hospital they even take photos of cars that they put tickets on!!!!

 

So it is us then.

 

It's a patients' families choice to take their private car to the hospital and use the car park. Most hospitals have decent public transport links or taxi drop of points. Hospital car pars are cluttered with public cars, preventing the hospital staff from using them.

And as Andym has pointed out, the Health Care Trust (under the umbrella of the National Health Service) owns the land, making it private property so they are permitted to charge whatever they want. If you take your vehicle into their car park then you enter into an agreement that you will comply with their rules, which covers the payment of a fee to use the facility, same as most multi-storey car parks.

 

What about the patient themselves
I have to take my wife who is now disabled, and we have the blue badge etc, which allows even parking on single yellow lines, until you enter
Ninewells Hospital Dundee, then it is £1.60 ph paid in advance,
We never know how long we are going to be, some appointments for one hour at 14:00 and we are not seen until 17:30, so have to keep running back and forth topping up the tickets
They are most considerate though and let us park on the Ground Floor and just 500 yards away from the entrance

The Hospital staff have no exemptions, so if they want to park near work then it is £14.40 a day or £72pw a mere pittance to our caring and daring I don't think
I do not know the answer, as finding free parking for a staff of 800? or more,though the grounds are huge and they manage to park thousands of cars at £1.40ph

A bit of a disgrace really, they expect staff to arrive clean, having travelled on a spit and vomit soaked bus, and wonder why they have MRSA problems

 

J McH: I sympathise with your predicament, but it seems you want to paint a negative picture with every point raised. As I said, the land on which the car parks are built is private, so whatever charges that are in place are a mutualy agreed contractual matter between the owner and the user.

I cannot speak for your current location, but I am aware that many Health Care Trusts operate patient mobility taxis; if your wife is registered disabled then I would imagine that she (and her designated escort) would be eligible to use such a service.

As for hospital workers (and patients/visitors) using a "spit and vomit-soaked bus" then that is a matter for you and them to take up with the bus company, but I imagine that you exaggerate the condition of all the vehicles. Hospital staff themselves are well aware of the health and cleanliness requirements prior to attending the sterile environment on the wards, and that is why changing rooms and cleaning facilities are provided for them. To the best of my knowledge, all sterile areas are bound by current regulations to have handwash inside and outside the entrances and at the end of each patient bed. It is up to the individual to use it.

I am not saying that the situation regarding car parks is right, but I seriously doubt that things are as bleak as you imagine. If they are then I cannot understand why you are moaning about it on a Royal Navy forum, rather than making your views heard with the Health Care Trust adminstrators.

 

Couple of misconceptions here! Yes, hospital car parks are on private property, owned by the respective Trust. However, until about 4 years ago, car parking was free because it was administered by the Trust. That task has now been handed over to private companies who obviously want to make money out of it. Facilities are no different than before, but the fact that the Trust could provide the same service for no charge yet now we pay an outside company smarts a bit. The money is not going back to the Trust - it's going into a third party's pockets.

Re: hospital staff using public transport - I think you need a reality check here. Look at the hours most doctors work - we are not 9-5 people. We have to come and go at strange times and very rarely finish work "on time". Having to synchronise this with that of a public transport system may work well in London, but in the rest of the country it is not feasible. If you don't believe me then you can follow me around the hospital for a week.

Re: sterile areas - assume you mean the wards. These are not sterile areas - I can think of only about 2 sterile areas in a hospital! Sterile means free from all bugs - which would mean keeping everyone permanently bathed in iodine which may do wonders for your tan but would make breathing a bit tricky.

 

not the one I live near Doc - its on a very obscure bus route and at the bottom of a hill too - getting the bus from the nearest underground station is almost impossible due to the congestion of buses at that junction - the buses pile up and just stop anywhere. Its better at many hospitals though.

 

AngryDoc: Good response, and I concur with your comments, and was aware of the difference between a ward and a sterile environment, but could not think of the appropriate word at the time! As for transportation for members of staff, then I do understand the difficulties too; my Mum was a night-duty maternity nurse for most of her working life and had to rely on buses to get to the hospital. However I am aware that some hospitals provide car-share/contract taxis for their staff. If this is not the case in your hospital then perhaps a word with the appropriate adminstrator?

However my point about dripping about non-naval things on this forum still stands; if people feel strongly about their concerns then they should address the private company that runs the car park, the public transport company and the NHS adminstrators about the state of the situation in the hospitals.

From my experience Jack is very good at dripping and bitching amongst his contemporaries, but is very slow in becoming proactive and addressing the matter head on with the people that can make a difference; more often than not, Jack just likes sounding off to sound good in front of his mess mates! For example, moaning down the mess about keeping extra duties or whatever, but when the Jimmy comes down the Mess for Rounds he keeps his gob shut! Is RR any different? :?

 

It's in the title - Current Affairs. This has never been restricted to things RN and I hope it never will be, because we all have a life outside our work or Service.

 

SgtP SNIP
I am not saying that the situation regarding car parks is right, but I seriously doubt that things are as bleak as you imagine. If they are then I cannot understand why you are moaning about it on a Royal Navy forum, rather than making your views heard with the Health Care Trust adminstrators.
End Snip

It was just a follow on to how we are ripped off by the hospital phone situation, as we are ripped off with car parking
Spit and vomit transport was an exageration, but public transport is not sterile, Perhaps staff should travel in civvies and change into uniform before working on a ward
Back to RN mode, sixties/seventies, Jack was not allowed out of the gate in anything but no1, no2 or civvies, now you see them wandering around Dunfermline/Rosyth/Inverkeithing in what I would term no8's ? or I do not know the code for this black serge trousers, whitefront with beret stuffed in back pocket

Snip
J McH: I sympathise with your predicament,
End Snip
I am not playing the disabled sympathy card, just that by this I am well aware of the state of hospitals today

Snip
it seems you want to paint a negative picture with every point raised
End Snip

Because just about every situation now is negative compared to the past, we are going backwards not advancing, all so that someone or company can make a buck

Anyway, drifted off the original topic of hospital phone ripp off's, so I will cause mayhem elsewhere

Regards

 

Jack,
2 points . 1 serious one other not so...
1. What the F**k does the latin in your signature say. I never studied latin, never will and have no inclanation to do so. So looking good it may but..... what does it say?

2. Hospital radio/phone internet thingy does cost a large amount to use. The moment our mis(trust) gets you to register a card they start taking cash off of it - wether or not you use it straight away.

The cards are not transferable from bed to bed - so you are not allowed to give it away if you get discharged, though many people do.

When they break down many of the patients ask us (nurses) to try and 'repair' them and we have to spend time ringing the shitty company - taking us away from our clinical duties.

Some patients are so ignaorant that they just watch Jeremy Kyle/Coronation Strreet/ Lorraine Kelly while the doctors are trying to talk to them about their disease/case.

The company have a 'rep' who visits the wards trying to drum up trade in these vile rip off's. She is in my eyes no better than a vulture. She is meant to keep the things clean too- She dusts them and no more and the cloth head phones are coated in ear wax/blood/Bugs of all sorts !

The head phones are hard wired in the back of the sets so that you can only have sound if you litsen via the headphones- yuk!

Can you tell that I dont like them?!

 

Yes the new tv/phone etc things are expensive to use, but having it was such a comfort to my mother when she was in hospital last year we would have paid anything to ensure it was available to her. And that is very much where the problem lies when some one is seriously ill relatives will do almost anything to provide the best comfort, and whilst I could afford that and the costs of parking once or twice a day there are many who cannot and for whom the system has no answer, no money no get.

As for bases instead of cars, where I lived I could drive to the hospital in 15-20 minutes but the bus took atleast an hour. At the time I had little enough life outside work and hospital that I was not going to watse an hour and a half on the bus. The NHS may be 'free' at the point of delivery but NuLabor has taxed the relatives to the hilt to pay for their loved ones care.

 

Maxi,
The phone/TV stuff is run by patientline and is cost prohibitive to most people. They rely on the fact that people want to use a phone, and make you pay through the nose for it.
For low income families and elderly on a pension, they are not really an option - so a 2 tier patient level arrives on the ward. The able to pay + not able to pay.
When I am on the wards I allow patients to use their own mobiles or help them to the (less expensive) public payphones. I truly have let people use my own mobile when they are so cash strapped and in need of a talk from family/friends.

The Govt. has proved that mobiles did interfere with medical equipment (Doctors pagers most worryingly!) such as infusion devices - but this has long ago been confined to history with the new devices able to resist the interference.

When you go to hospital the last thing you need is the cash vultures circulating over you, such as these companies. :threaten:

 

The vital point you miss is that these cash vultures are there because they are paying the NHS for the priviledge. Particularly with patient line, who were last year making a loss by the way despite their charges probably as a result of their rank imcompetance, they have a national monopoly, and even if the operation of the sytem is given to another less grasping operation they will still be able to cream off what they want as they own the hardware.

Equally in the end it is not the sick who suffer from the cash vultures it is their families. Part of the problems with getting alternative facilities for patients is the nature of the contract patientline has with the NHS so mobile phones will remain on the banned list as will private radio/tv equipment.