04 April 2007

The Great Patientline Rip-off

Never really had any involvement with Patientline, but watching the news about it this morning I was absolutely astonished. This is another stealth tax and nothing short of an absolute scandal.

  • Cost for anyone calling a patient - 49p a minute peak rate (but it's OK - only 39p per minute off-peak)
  • Cost for dialling out rising from 10p a minute to 26p a minute
  • Cost of Internet/TV access reducing from £3.50 to £2.90 a day

Patientline's excuse for this is that they haven't made any profit from their massive investment so far. That is no justification, they should have got their business case right; it is wrong for them to use their monopoly status to rip-off vulnerable people because their accountants can't add up.

What Patientline run is a series of simple Wide-Area Networks with Voice Over IP. It's nothing too complicated. They should be revisiting their business, slashing overheads and cutting out waste, not ripping off vulnerable people.

I hope the Conservatives pledge to sort this out, because this is a disgrace.

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