6:30pm Monday 15th March 2010
By Fiona Pendlebury
A LECTURER who racked up a £106 telephone bill ringing his mother in hospital is unhappy that he was repeatedly forced to listen to a pre-recorded announcement... about call charges.
Dr Gordon Downie, a university lecturer in computer science, says that every time he rang his mother at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital he was forced to listen to a 60-second service announcement.
When he rang Hospedia, an external company that provides bedside TV and phone services at the hospital, it was confirmed that his bill was inflated by listening to it.
Dr Downie called for changes to be made, allowing people to skip the announcement, and questioned the high price of ringing relatives in hospital.
He said: “Clearly I was aware that the charges were high but the total cost is made even higher because I repeatedly heard this message.
“During this period I must have listened to this announcement 15 to 20 times.
“There should at least be a mechanism that allows the user to bypass the announcement if they have already heard it.
“My concern is the privatisation and outsourcing of facilities within otherwise state-run organisations.”
A spokesperson for Hospedia said it had a responsibility to ensure people were aware of call charges as stipulated by watchdog Ofcom.
It is also looking at ways to reduce the cost of inbound calls, cut the length of the recorded message, give patients free unlimited outgoing calls and introduce a “skip message” option, she added.
A spokesperson for the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that mobile phones are not allowed to be used on the wards but that “the trust is in discussion with Hospedia regarding the upgrade of the bedside terminals and the charging systems to be used”.
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