Time really is money in the NHS
Anybody spot the story about the poor soul charged £127 by BT for a couple of phone calls he made attempting to change an appointment at his local hospital in Essex?
It seems he was charged £2.59, the rate for an hour, for each minute of the two calls of 21 and 28 minutes respectively instead of the 5p per minute rate on the 0844 number - the length of calls being because he was put on hold by the hospital which, you must admit, is a neat trick when you are coining it in for each minute a patient is on the line.
BT, as a goodwill gesture, which is management speak for we cocked up, are cancelling the bill but more alarming is the fact that the hospital, Broomfield in Chelmsford, introduced their "special low call rate number" in the first place.
There are far too many firms making a few bob on the side by charging us to call them despite the fact that we are the customer and they want our business but when it comes down to Government departments and public bodies perhaps it is time we said enough is enough. Perhaps the faceless suits who have never healed anyone in their life and who run our hospitals on the basis that life and death come down to a balance sheet should remember that those of us who pay taxes and national insurance also pay their exorbitant salaries. The unfortunate amongst us are also their customers.
The role of the managers, if they have to be employed at all, is to actually serve us and make life as simple as possible for patients and their families which does not involve grubbing around for every extra penny they can find. What next? A charge for extra sheets or blankets? Additional laundry fees for soiling sheets? Penalty charges for dying and spoiling league tables and targets?
Any other hidden charges out there anyone wants to get off their chest? Feel free to let fly.
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Roger Clarke
Birmingham’s very own Grumpy Old Man on what gets right up his nose.
Your Blog should be funded by the NHS.I usually vent my spleen on a regular basis down at my local with other like minded souls.Doing it in response to your column on the internet stops me drinking and so helps with my health. In addition I spend less money in the form of beer and petrol to get to my local.So I`m sudenly healthier, greener and wealthier.Thank you Doctor!
I am glad the treatment has been so successful. Perhaps you would be so kind as to furnish us with either your BUPA policy number or National Insurance Exemption Certificate otherwise under the Blogs For Health Initiative Action Plan which is run for us by a consultant driven delivery unit under a PFI deal with a private equity hedge fund registered at a two bed flat over a chip shop in Grand Caymen we will have to charge your Primary Care Trust for the cost of your treatment and, of course, the hourly rate of the four consultants required to operate the spellcheck on the invoice.
Well done Roger for spotting the true story underneath the silly billing error.
This NHS Trust and many others around the country are collecting far than £127 from patients of a NHS said to be "free at the point of need".
Campaigners have collected a list of all the GPs who publish these "revenue sharing" numbers. Drop me a note and I can let you have all the cases in and around Brum.
Perhaps the Mail would like to publish this. We can also provide information about how much more they really cost to call than 0121 numbers, so that the "revenue" taken by the telephone companies can be "shared" with the NHS service providers.