Looks like PTL is going bust, and not a moment too soon. What a sad indictment that there are people wishing that this wretched company goes out of business, however it could have taken action earlier and stop the rip-off. I guess greed followed greed followed greed. Plenty of media reports today.

http://www.hemscott.com/news/comment-archive/item.do?id=29483

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Patientline reports a pretax loss from continuing operations of £32m, split equally between an operating loss and exceptional items, in the year to 30 March. The underlying loss has shot up from £10.4m to £15.1m.

The figures look pretty sickly despite extensive restructuring over the past 12 months and the company admits that it still needs to get borrowings down to a sustainable level.

Chairman Geoff White claims Patientline has a clear strategy after closing its loss making US operations and raising £7.5m from selling the Continental Europe arm. It has also withdrawn from loss making hospitals in the UK.

However, we feel it is ominous that revenue per terminal per day declined by 6.4% to only £1.62, continuing a three-year slide from £1.97 in 2004.
[...]

We really don’t see how Patientline can get out of this mess despite the best endeavours to turn the company round. Neither does the stock market, where Patientline’s sickly shares slipped another 1.125p to 2.375p this morning.

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idb wrote on Jun 25^th, 2007 at 11:38pm:


So what has happened in respect of bedside phone and tv services and the existing equipment supporting them in those hospitals exactly?

derrick wrote on Jun 26^th, 2007 at 3:52pm:


Derrick,

It is all very well for you to sit there and theorise on your high horse of principle from the comfort of not being immediately in this position but when I get a call out of the blue first saying hello its mr x from the local NHS hospital and did I know my mother was going in there to see them today only for them to then thankfully put my mother on the line  (so presumably the call was made on a member of staff's phone and thus avoiding Patientline) and so having then already having had a near heart attack wondering why some man from an NHS hospital and not mother was unexpectedly calling me when I then also find that she might be going in to theatre in an hour for an operation under general anaesthetic and I have to also look up the operation they are proposing on the internet and also alternative private treatments for the same condition the fact that the call might cost £30 is not at the top of your list of priorities.  Instead you are worried your Mother might die under the anaesthetic at the age of 72 due to some adverse reaction or other or more likely that she might develop some terrible MSRA infection afterwards due to the backwards 1970s technology still being used by the NHS for such more complex wrist ops.

So knowing as you do how I especially hate being ripped off over phone calls when you consider that even I felt almost blackmailed to use PatientScam due to the lack of time in a very urgent situation how do you think the average Jo Punter is going to behave when they face the same very worrying situations with their relatives being operated on unexpectedly but are often not aware of PatientScam call charges until it is too late.

The point is that if even I a well known opponent of Patientline and NGN call scams feels blackmailed in to using the service in this situation how do you think the majority of the less informed and less prices conscious members of the public are going to behave?

All I am saying is that by actually being in the blackmail position of having had to use Patientline it makes me even more aware than I previously was what a disgusting form of blackmail and extortion racket it is and it is incredible that the government allows sick people and their relatives of all things to be exploited by such blatant commercial racketeering.  Can you imagine the fuss from Labour if the Conservatives had allowed such things to happen in NHS hospitals.  But what do we hear from the useless Mr Cameron about such hidden New Labour permitted telecoms scams - absolutely nothing as he is too busy looking for his next eco friendly bicycle.

Derrick,

The only point I was trying to make is that the circumstances in which people are blackmailed in to using PatientScam are usually anything but lighthearted.  I do understand you were not trying to upset me but the actual Patientline operation is very upsetting indeed because of who it relies on exploiting and the circumstances in which they are usually most easily and most effectively exploited.

derrick wrote on Jun 26^th, 2007 at 4:42pm:


Of course the even bigger crooks are the Directors on the NHS Board who got in to bed with Patientline.

They have no excuse when they are meant to be serving the public interest.

NGMsGhost wrote on Jun 26^th, 2007 at 12:08am:


To the best of my knowledge, Patientline has not yet withdrawn from any hospitals.
The contracts require six months notice of cessation.
There are two hospitals in respect of which I have heard that such notice has been served to the respective Trusts.
I believe that the company has been in discussion with Trusts over nine other hospitals from which service will be withdrawn unless the it is funded to some extent in some form.

I anticipate Patientline removing its equipment from hospitals in respect of which the contract has ceased, and that there will thereafter be no telephone or TV facilities in the wards.

Patientline has been able to exploit sick people and their relatives because NHS senior management is businessminded and doesnt give a stuff about public service.  In Britain, it's all about money, and to hell with common decency.

When I was last in hospital (thankfully a long time ago), a man came around the wards with a trolley and you could phone from that at normal rates.  Of course, in rip-off Britain, technological advances are seldom for the benefit of the consumer but an opportunity for others to get rich quick.  Patientline may be going bust (and let's hope that Britain's slovenly company law doesn't let the directors walk off without meeting the company's debts), but this doesn't mean that telephone and TV facilities can no longer be provided in hospitals.

One important question is whether mobile phones still have to be banned everywhere in hospitals, because of possible interference with medical equipment.  I believe there is a re-think going on about this.