|
Hospital Telephones a Con or Convenience?
A NATIONWIDE campaign entitled ‘Fair Talk’ is launched
this week to discover the views of patients and visitors into
hospital bedside television and telephone services. The campaign,
which is being undertaken by Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
Forums across England, will for the first time give consumers of
these services the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.
The Forums, who represent patients and the public in decisions about
health, decided action needed to be taken after receiving a deluge
of complaints from patients and their visitors on the cost of
services provided by companies such as Patientline, Hospicom and
Premier. The Forums will conduct surveys throughout hospitals
in England to discover the true cost and quality of these services
and to establish if patients and the public’s best interests are
being served. Additionally the Forums will also investigate whether
hospitals allow patients the choice of using their mobile phone in
certain areas of the hospital.
The launch of the Fair Talk Campaign comes on the back of months of
concerns over hospital bedside television and telephone services.
These include:-
· Ofcom investigating the price of making telephone calls to
hospital patients and refering the issue to the Department of Health
· Department of Health announcing the creation of a Review Group
into the price of Hospital telephone charges
· Today, Chairman of Patientline, Derek Lewis steps down from role
to be replaced by iSoft's Deputy Chairman, Geoff White
· Patientline is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on
Thursday, citing a “loss of customer confidence in the
service’s value for money and quality."
The Forums will use the findings of the survey to feedback the views
of patients and their families to the Department of Health’s Review.
Steve Lowden, Chief Executive of the Commission for Patient and
Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) commented:- “PPI Forums
have received many complaints from members of the public, who are
telling them that they simply cannot afford the telephone charges
that private companies such have set. Many feel that these prices
are exploiting the most vulnerable and placing real hardship on
patients, their families and friends. Forums will also be
investigating whether there is real patient choice, the opportunity
to use personal mobile phones, which have been proved to have no
detrimental effect on medical equipment. Forums are joining forces
to ensure members of the public have a real say into what they think
of hospital telephone charges”. |
Phishing Email Warning...
THIS week our
mail box has been hit by lots of "phishing" email.
"Phishing" is when someone is trying to fool you
into giving up your personal info with an official looking message
and is one of the most known ways people get account information,
credit card information and other information like that. This week
our email boxes have had hundreds of emails purporting to be from
City Bank and also saying they are from Barclays Bank PLC. The
senders are not the banks and we can say that if you do get any
emails saying, "We need your 'urgent' phone number to contact
you when needed, for the updated security system to operate
effectively." DO NOT SEND IT! It is a scam...
Another one says, "Because of the rapid increase in cases of
fraudulent activity please send us your ID number and contact
information. We also need your full postal address and date of
birth." Again do not send it. They also have
links to web sites for you to fill in client information... again
these are not the Bank's websites, so do not fill any information
in!
Last chance to get into Miss Southport and Mr Southport 2006
THIS is your
last week to enter the competition to get a chance to compete for
the title of Miss England or Mr England. Yes, it is nearly
time... The Miss Southport and Mr Southport event will be held
at Havana, Southport on 26 April 2006. Text votes numbers will be
issued very soon for public voting to take place in the near future.
Keep an eye on:-
misssouthport.com for more
information and also on here...
 |
