outrageous hospital bedside phone charges

[H1232]

My husband is in hospital long term, internet and mobile coverage is very poor on ward.  To talk to him I have to call his bedside phone.  The costs are extortionate.  From what I can work out (and it's not straightforward) it's costing me 93p/minute from ee and 13p/minute service charge, a whopping £1.06/minute!  At one point ee was refunding their charges, is this still the case? 

[chistery]

Hi @H1232 

I think it was during covid that the charges were being refunded but as far as I know that policy was stopped so expect to be charged full price now.

EE don't set these prices. Is wifi calling an option? Is there free wifi in hospitals? 

[bristolian]

In the distant past, many hospital trusts contracted with private operators to provide bedside phones - and used expensive 070-numbers with high incoming call costs. Well done checking first! Many wouldn't have.

I can't recall any mobile operator has ever given a blanket amnesty on calls to these numbers, and mobile use has become much more prevalent since.

Most hospitals should have in-building mobile coverage, or at the very least a WiFi network.

[H1232]

He can call my mobile foc for a minute or 2 before it cuts off.  If we had a landline there'd be no time limit apparently.  I was just questioning how Hospedia can be allowed to charge such extortionate amounts and also not be subject to Ofgem's regulatory powers, especially when many wards have poor mobile and internet coverage.

[bristolian]

An operator such as Hospidea clearly has commercial motivations, but they will have a contract with the hospital trust and it's those legal provisions that will contain certain allowances. One common model was that operators cover all the costs of the equipment install & maintenance, and in return prices were capped at a certain level - which may well be the figures you're seeing. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, would require that call costs are clearly notified, but beyond that consumer choice takes over and individual users can decide whether to use that service or not.

Hospital mobile coverage is currently a hot topic, alongside in-building mobile coverage in general. Many trusts now have dedicated internal coverage systems with one or multiple mobile operators, others take the view that mobile networks have responsibility for coverage while they provide indoor WiFi instead.

If a particular hospital trust appears to take the view that provision of expensive bedside phones alongside WiFi, is a way of mitigating for poor indoor mobile coverage, then you may wish to take that up with the trust directly. Alongside using WiFi-calling to provide your own internal mobile service.

[XRaySpeX]

What are the 1st 6 digits of the number you called?

[Nick2340]

Hospedia isn't EE is! Hospedia take 13p per minute from that. The system is old, it's 22 years old some from Premier Tele solutions are even older and they need upgrading, who's going to pay for that? You will! Either from the taxes you pay or from the person using the units or the caller.

The NHS has always refused to provide such a service themselves. Also who pays for the free WiFi Hospedia provide or the free calls or wages of the engineers.

Either they have to provide such charges or the service will vanish and the latter is not ideal for people who do not have their own devices with them or for people unable to use them.

You could buy a very basic mobile phone for as little as £12.99 for your relative and call them using your allowances.

EE and other mobile networks charge as much as 75p per minute access charge on top of the service charge of 08,09 and even 118 numbers, the latter is already overpriced and phone companies are really taking it too far. The system of on introduced in 2015 has allowed this to happen and we never used to see such confusion and high prices. The changes were supposed to iron out confusion but you ask any random person what an 0872 or 118 number is they wouldn't have a clue. 

On that note some people with disabilities are entitled to the free 195 directory service which will save a fortune on expensive 118 calls

Also I'm sure EE provide an add offering for 200 minutes to all 08 numbers for £6 per month. If they are able to offer this they are able to drop the access charges to a much lower rate of 20p per minute which is more reasonable, there's no warnings for these types of calls. There was a time when they used to warn you about the upcoming charges for calling a 0800 number then that was dropped and eventually ofcom forced all phone companies to offer free calls to 0800/0808. 0500 was never included despite them running up until 2017