Patientline Share Discussion Threads

[jonc] 24/6/2007 17:12

It would be a shocker if revenue had fallen to £40m as they reached £25m in the first six months.

Oh well tomorrow morning will reveal all.

At least they have spent some money revamping their website.

[scribbler101] 24/6/2007 15:36

Patientline in survival fight
Simon Fluendy, Mail on Sunday
24 June 2007
Patientline, the firm behind controversial hospital phone and entertainment services, is seeking crunch survival talks with its bankers.



WANT TO KNOW MORE?MORE: Bedside robbery - the great hospital rip-off
REPORT: Patients face £1 charge for headphones
The company wants to reach a deal that will avoid corporate bankruptcy and allow price cuts for its hospitalised customers.
Patientline has been lambasted after raising prices in April to 26p a minute for patients to make phone calls and £2.90 a day to watch TV. People calling relatives in hospital are charged up to 49p a minute.

Alongside results for the year to the end of last March, chairman Geoff White will tell investors tomorrow that the financial position is unsustainable as the company is paying £8m a year in interest to creditors, mainly Royal Bank of Scotland, HBoS and HSBC

Last year, Patientline lost £25m on turnover of £55m and revenues are likely to have plunged to £40m this time round.

Financial Mail understands the company is close to breaching its banking covenants.

White was put in place after 18% shareholder Shore Capital ousted his predecessor, former prisons boss Derek Lewis. White and chief executive Nick Winks are keen to avoid a direct swap of debt for new shares. 'There are other possibilities, including rescheduling,' said a City source.

Finance chief Brent Marshall is understood to be closely involved with the plans. Marshall handled similar negotiations for dotcom boom victim Bookham Technology.

The source said: 'If Patientline could strike a deal, it would free up millions to invest in new equipment that would be much cheaper. It would also make it possible to cut prices and drive demand.'

[scribbler101] 24/6/2007 15:32

PTL fansite:-

[palwing] 24/6/2007 15:15

Big write up on PTL probs in the Mail on Sunday Business section today. Good luck all that hold.

[kammi1] 24/6/2007 14:38

I think you are correct they did not reduce anything, as far as i know.I was encouraged to read that they did not want a massive dilution and wanted to look at other options.Living in hope.
Kammi

[scribbler101] 24/6/2007 14:21

is this correct? - not what I had read.

"In April, the firm, which has been criticised for its high call charges, slashed the cost of incoming phone calls from 39p per minute off-peak and 49p at all other times to a flat rate of 26p, "

kammi's link worth reading.

[kammi1] 24/6/2007 13:21

Some news begining to emerge.City diary

THE following business news is expected on Monday:

• Majestic Wine, which operates eight stores in Scotland, including two in Edinburgh, is set to report full-year results. The company, which reported a 17 per cent increase in half year profits before tax of £6.5 million, said in November that the outlook was good for the full year.

• Patientline, which operates the bedside telephone and TV services at the ERI, is also due to report full-year figures. The struggling firm, which reported a loss of £3.7m in the six months to September 29, said at the end of last year that it had embarked on a business recovery plan which included the closure of its US operations. In April, the firm, which has been criticised for its high call charges, slashed the cost of incoming phone calls from 39p per minute off-peak and 49p at all other times to a flat rate of 26p, but hiked the cost of outgoing calls by 16p a minute

[scribbler101] 22/6/2007 15:32

long article

[jaywood] 20/6/2007 08:45

Scribbler 101,
Ref girls wage versus call costs.
It only took 5 mins to speak to me and therefore in a day her presence was well justified - she could have seen every new arrival in the day.

[scribbler101] 19/6/2007 23:20

debaleb - IIUC the wards with PTL do not or are not allowed to offer free inwards communications. And tend to enforce a clinically unwarranted ban on patient mobiles.

People who object to being ripped off 49p for connection + 49p/minute have an additional option. MAKE A FUSS. And they are doing.

Would you like to see patients refused tap water and instead offered ONLY Evian at several times market price?

[willoicc] 19/6/2007 21:05

You have to pay off the debt first

[debaleb] 19/6/2007 20:48

The equipment must be worth multiples of the market cap, firesale?

[debaleb] 19/6/2007 20:46

Patients get free meals, the few quid saved on that is all it costs for tv and the phone.

Damn fine equipment imo and a good service, bet Patientline wish they'd never bothered now in the first place, let the whingers go back to staring at the ceiling or crowding into the day rooms with the other sick folk.


PS The people who complain about the cost of phoning in have two very good options; DON'T BLOOMING CALL IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT or call the ward like you had to do before(btw Good luck in getting one of the hard working staff members to patch you through).

[scribbler101] 19/6/2007 17:07

So in 4 days you spent £6 on phone calls - which can barely have paid the girl's wages to visit you. But were there also standing charges?

[jaywood] 19/6/2007 16:18

Scribbler101,
We are a 100 mile round trip to hospital and I was in 4 days.( This means that is better value even for 'would be visitors' in our area, compared to fuel.)
I bought a £2 card whenever I needed to phone. The first card paid for me to tell 5 people where I was, no long drivel though.
The second card covered a couple of chats with home.
Third card wasn't fully used and I gave it to a girl on the ward.

The PTL girl came round because there was a number on the unit to dial to 'summon' her. Saw her within an hour. ( they have a console where the PTL system links to in the hospital behind the scenes.)
As for user friendly - we on this board are computer literate to some degree and this means we would cope with a PTL unit. I don't believe that it is user friendly at any age group without some tech skills.

[jonc] 19/6/2007 16:01

PTL would not have to visit every unit as PTLs systems would tell them which machines were and were not in use. Consequently they would only be dealing with the patient turnover.

[scribbler101] 19/6/2007 15:51

Jay - hope you are well. Interesting to get real experience - I only have it phoning in for 49p+49p/min.

Could I ask how long you were in and how much you spent?

I can't see how it can be cost effective to have a "girl came round". How long after you arrived? Had you attempted to use it without help? Were there instriuctions available? Was it user friendly?

[jaywood] 19/6/2007 15:20

Been in hospital -actually used Patientline ------so I'm already ahead of most people on this thread.
Girl came to the bedside, Do you need me to set this up for you?.
My response - Can you tell me about it? ----had all the freebies explained well by PTL staff member.
I used the 10p out phone and had the free 1 hour tv for news purposes in the morning.
The others on the ward were 50% over 70 and had no chance with the system - as I have posted before I am sure they wait for the 7 year old grandchild to come round to set anything TV Video Dvd at home.

If the PTL staff are following this memo as reported - good for them.

[scribbler101] 18/6/2007 23:43

Who knows - patients may be gaga. Probably not. But I do not think any sort of selling effort towards newly hospitalised people is appropriate. Should we also allow ambulance chasers to visit the sick? Or proponents of mystic systems of salvation? (Hospital Chaplains excepted; and IIUC they only attend those who register as of the appropriate persuasion)

[jonc] 18/6/2007 22:51

Well if you think about it you will realise that despite what the news of the world has published PTL staff have not been nicking patients credit cards or cash and signing them up for PTL services. Have they?

[scribbler101] 18/6/2007 21:59

Nice to meet one so pure in mind that he imports no evil to others