Circumventing Patientline
 

At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has experience
of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial digital. The ideal
machine would also have some means of accepting and playing recorded
programmes, possibly from a memory stick. It would need a headphone
socket that would mute the speaker.
I've had a bit of a look round but haven't seen anything very sparkling.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Bill Wright wrote:

Subject: Circumventing Patientline

Patientline went bust; do you mean Hospedia?

Circumventing Patientline
 

In message , Bill Wright
writes
At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has
experience of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial digital.
The ideal machine would also have some means of accepting and playing
recorded programmes, possibly from a memory stick. It would need a
headphone socket that would mute the speaker.
I've had a bit of a look round but haven't seen anything very sparkling.

Bill


A friend of mine has just spent some time in hospital and wanted
something similar. A visit to Maplins produced something about the size
of an iPhone that had a digital tuner and an SD card slot so that you
could certainly record programs to play later, not sure what format, so
I don't know if you could import from elsewhere. Came with ear pieces,
mag' aerial, aerial adapter lead to something, F? It had an internal
battery that lasted some hours and an external wall wart psu.

The images were very good, even better it was only £99:00

No idea what the part No was, but it was only about 5 weeks ago, so
probably still current.
--
Bill
( A different one )

Circumventing Patientline
 

David Woolley wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:

Subject: Circumventing Patientline

Patientline went bust; do you mean Hospedia?

I was using it as a generic term. Although the equipment is still, of
course, labelled Patientline, and the staff refer to the service as
"That Patientline thing" when they advise people not to use it on
grounds of cost and the tiny low resolution picture.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Bill wrote:
In message , Bill Wright
writes
At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has
experience of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial
digital. The ideal machine would also have some means of accepting and
playing recorded programmes, possibly from a memory stick. It would
need a headphone socket that would mute the speaker.
I've had a bit of a look round but haven't seen anything very sparkling.

Bill


A friend of mine has just spent some time in hospital and wanted
something similar. A visit to Maplins produced something about the size
of an iPhone that had a digital tuner and an SD card slot so that you
could certainly record programs to play later, not sure what format, so
I don't know if you could import from elsewhere. Came with ear pieces,
mag' aerial, aerial adapter lead to something, F? It had an internal
battery that lasted some hours and an external wall wart psu.

The images were very good, even better it was only £99:00

No idea what the part No was, but it was only about 5 weeks ago, so
probably still current.
Oh thanks for that. I'll investigate.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Saturday, March 17th, 2012, at 14:15:13h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has
experience of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial
digital.

I do not understand why you think this question would annoy me because
it is an entirely appropriate, on topic question for a group called
tech.digital-tv.

The question is, how big does the TV screen need to be?

Also have you considered that for the patient in question,
*if* they already have a laptop PC, then they could use that
with the purchase of a USB TV stick rather than buying a
portable digital TV?

IF it really must be a portable digital TV, then have a look
at some of the models which do have USB video playback at

http://www.digitaldaffodil.co.UK/portable_freeview_tv.html

and one which uses a miniSD card rather than USB at

http://www.firebox.COM/product/2271/Portable-Digital-TV

Hope that gives you some ideas of what could be suitable.

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:19:25 +0000, J G Miller wrote:

and one which uses a miniSD card rather than USB at

Sorry, that should have been uses a miniSD card in addition to USB

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:15:13 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has experience
of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial digital. The ideal
machine would also have some means of accepting and playing recorded
programmes, possibly from a memory stick. It would need a headphone
socket that would mute the speaker.
I've had a bit of a look round but haven't seen anything very sparkling.

Bill

Circumventing is too good for Patientline, they should be castrated.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

Circumventing Patientline
 

On 17/03/2012 14:33, Bill wrote:

A friend of mine has just spent some time in hospital and wanted
something similar. A visit to Maplins produced something about the size
of an iPhone that had a digital tuner and an SD card slot so that you
could certainly record programs to play later, not sure what format, so
I don't know if you could import from elsewhere. Came with ear pieces,
mag' aerial, aerial adapter lead to something, F? It had an internal
battery that lasted some hours and an external wall wart psu.

The images were very good, even better it was only £99:00

No idea what the part No was, but it was only about 5 weeks ago, so
probably still current.

Try here, mate!
http://www.maplin.co.uk/tv-and-satel...s/portable-tvs

A line of thought I hadn't got around to checking out fully yet.

Richard

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:54:26 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

David Woolley wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:

Subject: Circumventing Patientline

Patientline went bust; do you mean Hospedia?

I was using it as a generic term. Although the equipment is still, of
course, labelled Patientline, and the staff refer to the service as
"That Patientline thing" when they advise people not to use it on
grounds of cost and the tiny low resolution picture.

Bill

Hospedia are great! My wife got 20 free hours just for telling them
that the screens got dirty too quickly. Then she got a refund for the
hours she had already booked by phone with her credit card.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software. http://www.npsl1.com
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

Circumventing Patientline
 

J G Miller wrote:
On Saturday, March 17th, 2012, at 14:15:13h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

At the risk of annoying JG I was wondering if anyone here has
experience of any very small TV sets with built-in terrestrial
digital.

I do not understand why you think this question would annoy me

Because you've complained about me asking people for any hints and tips
on techy subjects.


The question is, how big does the TV screen need to be?

Also have you considered that for the patient in question,
*if* they already have a laptop PC, then they could use that
with the purchase of a USB TV stick rather than buying a
portable digital TV?
Yes. I'll considering that. Unfortunately our small laptop is old and
slow, and the other one is far too big.


IF it really must be a portable digital TV, then have a look
at some of the models which do have USB video playback at

http://www.digitaldaffodil.co.UK/portable_freeview_tv.html
Oh! That's a good site! Thanks for that.

My main concern is that previous experience has shown that the screens
of these little TV sets radiate enough RF to make reception on the rod
aerial next to impossible.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Saturday, March 17th, 2012, at 18:29:10h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

Because you've complained about me asking people for any hints and tips
on techy subjects.

But that was because they were not related to TV matters for which you
would actually have got better and more advice in an appropriate newsgroup.

Unfortunately our small laptop is old and
slow, and the other one is far too big.

How old and slow and how much memory? So long as one is not
trying to do HD decoding, a PC with a CPU as slow as 600 MHZ
and at least 1 GByte of RAM can do SD TV. The fact that the
TV signal is already digital means that it works even better
than when the signal was analog and the machine had to do analog
to digital MPEG2 encoding on the fly.

Can you not borrow a DVB stick from somebody if you do not already
have one to do a test on the small old laptop?

My main concern is that previous experience has shown that the screens
of these little TV sets radiate enough RF to make reception on the rod
aerial next to impossible.

In which case do any of them have an external antenna socket to which
you could connect an indoor antenna (maybe one of those log periodic
types) for suitable placement?

I have never actually used one myself, but did observe one in action
in an consumer electronic store in a shopping center and despite all
the electrosmog and extremely bad reception conditions, the DVB-t
(64-QAM, 8k FFT) reception was rock solid whereas if it had been analog
it would have been suffering multipath ghosting and picture distortion
as shoppers walked by so I was most impressed at the robustness of reception.

Circumventing Patientline
 

J G Miller wrote:
On Saturday, March 17th, 2012, at 18:29:10h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

Because you've complained about me asking people for any hints and tips
on techy subjects.

But that was because they were not related to TV matters for which you
would actually have got better and more advice in an appropriate newsgroup.
Ah, but I know the people here. If I went to a strange newsgroup I've
would have no way of discriminating between the idiots and those with
knowledge.
There are those here whose word and judgement I trust.


Unfortunately our small laptop is old and
slow, and the other one is far too big.

How old and slow and how much memory? So long as one is not
trying to do HD decoding, a PC with a CPU as slow as 600 MHZ
and at least 1 GByte of RAM can do SD TV. The fact that the
TV signal is already digital means that it works even better
than when the signal was analog and the machine had to do analog
to digital MPEG2 encoding on the fly.

Can you not borrow a DVB stick from somebody if you do not already
have one to do a test on the small old laptop?
OK. Sounds like a plan. I'll dig her out and crank the handle and see if
if I can get her to fire up. If so I'll try a DVB stick. The signal
input is likely to be a problem, whatever I do.


My main concern is that previous experience has shown that the screens
of these little TV sets radiate enough RF to make reception on the rod
aerial next to impossible.

In which case do any of them have an external antenna socket to which
you could connect an indoor antenna (maybe one of those log periodic
types) for suitable placement?
It's a problem in hospital. They really don't like wires and things. It
depends on the ward to some extent.


I have never actually used one myself, but did observe one in action
in an consumer electronic store in a shopping center and despite all
the electrosmog and extremely bad reception conditions, the DVB-t
(64-QAM, 8k FFT) reception was rock solid whereas if it had been analog
it would have been suffering multipath ghosting and picture distortion
as shoppers walked by so I was most impressed at the robustness of reception.
Yes, well if the field strength is good enough it can be remarkable. It
is possible to drive along the motorway and have the kids watching telly
in back.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Whatever its called it is likely to go bust again unless they make a more
reasonable charge for the services than the last attempt to print money.
Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David Woolley" wrote in message
...
Bill Wright wrote:

Subject: Circumventing Patientline

Patientline went bust; do you mean Hospedia?

Circumventing Patientline
 

Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital trust
said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as she had been
in charge she must have been party to the installation in the first place.
Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as hospital car parking charges.
Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
David Woolley wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:

Subject: Circumventing Patientline

Patientline went bust; do you mean Hospedia?

I was using it as a generic term. Although the equipment is still, of
course, labelled Patientline, and the staff refer to the service as "That
Patientline thing" when they advise people not to use it on grounds of
cost and the tiny low resolution picture.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation
in the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't hospital
patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for facilities that
they are the ones using? They're the ones who are benefitting from the
medical treatment after all, and a substantial proportion of the money
raised goes back into hospital funds.

The alternative is for the NHS to become a car park company establishing
and running free or subsidised car parks all over the place not only for
the patients but their sisters and their cousins and their aunts as
well. If there are limited funds available to the NHS, as there always
are, isn't it better that those funds should be spent on medical
facilities rather than running car parks?

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sunday, March 18th, 2012, at 01:53:58h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

Ah, but I know the people here.

Which proves the point that you treat the newsgroup as
your own personal forum. ;+)

If I went to a strange newsgroup I've would have no way of
discriminating between the idiots and those with knowledge.

A person of your experience of the world soon knows when somebody
is behaving like an idiot and you discriminate on that basis with
new posters in this newsgroup as well.

There are those here whose word and judgement I trust.

I do not doubt it. You trust your doctor no doubt, but you
would not go to him for legal advice.

I'll dig her out and crank the handle and see if if I can get her
to fire up. If so I'll try a DVB stick. The signal
input is likely to be a problem, whatever I do.

Signal input is always a problem for these things be it DVB sticks
or portable televisions.

It's a problem in hospital. They really don't like wires and things.

Unless they are attaching them to the patient! ;)

It depends on the ward to some extent.

No doubt your charm and wit will smooth the way with the one
in charge of the ward and ensure that safety regulation regarding
trailing cables are not contravened!

It is possible to drive along the motorway and have the kids
watching telly in back.

Who would have thought is possible ten or more years ago?
(Not just the technology but the economics as well.)

Just having an AM radio in the car was at one point a luxury for
many people.

Circumventing Patientline
 

In message , J G Miller
writes

Who would have thought is possible ten or more years ago?
(Not just the technology but the economics as well.)

Just having an AM radio in the car was at one point a luxury for
many people.

Just having a car was a luxury, when I were a lad we had to make do with
the bus.

--
Bill
( A different one )

Circumventing Patientline
 

In article , Norman Wells
wrote:
Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation in
the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't hospital
patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for facilities that
they are the ones using?

The answer may depend on various conditionals: e.g.s...

1) How much is "a little bit" in a given case.

2) Did the patient have any free choice about ending up in the hospital bed
and being too ill to leave? Or about being depressed, anxious, and in pain,
possiblt also confused, and thus may find the distraction, etc, of TV or
radio beneficial.

They may simply not be in "free market" situation beyond "take it or leave
it". Nor does it seem decent to me for people in such cases to be viewed as
a 'revenue stream' by quasi-monopoly concerns who have made deals over
their heads.

They're the ones who are benefitting from the medical treatment after
all, and a substantial proportion of the money raised goes back into
hospital funds.

Claiming "They're the ones benefitting" rather overlooks other issues.

e.g. By making them well, they may then return to being a productive member
of our society/economy. So we may *all* benefit from them being treated in
hospital. And in reality, a big part of 'treatment' comes down to how you
are *treated* by the people and environment. [The hint here is in the
word.]

Getting people better isn't simply a matter of shoving medication down them
- although you could be forgiven for thinking so, considering how badly
many people are treated in some hospitals or care homes. Hence having
access to things like TV or radio may well both benefit them *and* save us
money by cutting the time and cost of their stay in the hospital. They may
get better sooner, and use up less 'medical' resources while in hospital.
Pretty much the same argument as the one for ensuring people are fed
decently whilst there... another part of treatment that affects outcome.

The alternative is for the NHS to become a car park company establishing
and running free or subsidised car parks all over the place not only
for the patients but their sisters and their cousins and their aunts as
well. If there are limited funds available to the NHS, as there always
are, isn't it better that those funds should be spent on medical
facilities rather than running car parks?

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:27:13 +0000, Bill
wrote:

In message , J G Miller
writes

Who would have thought is possible ten or more years ago?
(Not just the technology but the economics as well.)

Just having an AM radio in the car was at one point a luxury for
many people.

Just having a car was a luxury, when I were a lad we had to make do with
the bus.

When I was a lad we had to walk. The bus couldn't get up the rough
stone track!

Steve

--
Neural Network Software. http://www.npsl1.com
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:12:44 UTC, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital trust
said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as she had been
in charge she must have been party to the installation in the first place.
Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as hospital car parking charges.

I don't object to paying - its the "guess how long your appointment is
running late" and pay up front I hate.
--
Regards
Dave Saville

Circumventing Patientline
 

In message [email protected], Dave Saville
writes
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:12:44 UTC, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital trust
said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as she had been
in charge she must have been party to the installation in the first place.
Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as hospital car parking charges.

I don't object to paying - its the "guess how long your appointment is
running late" and pay up front I hate.

High Wycombe hospital has, at long last, finally changed their carpark
from pay-and-display to take-a-ticket-and-pay-when-you-leave. However,
they have put up the charge from £1 an hour to £1.50. Previously, you
knew you would usually be safe if you pre-paid for 2 hours (£2), but as
Sod's Law ensures that your stay will be 1h 05m, so you now end up
paying £3. Still, mustn't grumble (I suppose). At least you won't get
clamped.
--
Ian

Circumventing Patientline
 

"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation
in the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't hospital
patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for facilities that they
are the ones using? They're the ones who are benefitting from the medical
treatment after all, and a substantial proportion of the money raised goes
back into hospital funds.

wrt to parking you're going to get the same answer that I posted the last
time that this was asked.

There are many cases where hospitals have moved from (expensive), easy to
get to, town centre locations to cheaper out of the way edge of town
locations which are only accessible by car.

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly service,
to move to an out of the way location for *their* convenience and then
charge the people that they have forced an inconvenient journey upon to get
to them, to pay to park as a revenue stream.

tim

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:11:18 +0000 (UTC), "Dave Saville"
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:12:44 UTC, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital trust
said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as she had been
in charge she must have been party to the installation in the first place.
Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as hospital car parking charges.

I don't object to paying - its the "guess how long your appointment is
running late" and pay up front I hate.


Also there must me lots of motorists who get a call from the hospital
and rush there to spend the last few moments with their dying
relitive, and then find they have a charge notice.



--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

Circumventing Patientline
 

Ian Jackson wrote:

Sod's Law ensures that your stay will be 1h 05m, so you now end up
paying £3. Still, mustn't grumble (I suppose). At least you won't get
clamped.

The legislation that will remove the option of clamping is entering its
final stages, and I think it is too late for that part of it to be
removed:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/...ffreedoms.html

Circumventing Patientline
 

tim.... wrote:
"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation
in the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't
hospital patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for
facilities that they are the ones using? They're the ones who are
benefitting from the medical treatment after all, and a substantial
proportion of the money raised goes back into hospital funds.

wrt to parking you're going to get the same answer that I posted the
last time that this was asked.

There are many cases where hospitals have moved from (expensive),
easy to get to, town centre locations to cheaper out of the way edge
of town locations which are only accessible by car.

I doubt if any hospital is really accessible only by car. In my
experience, there are _always_ bus routes serving them.

Anyway, town centre locations are not necessarily easy to get to for
everyone, nor are they likely to have sufficient room for the car
parking they really need.

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly
service, to move to an out of the way location for *their*
convenience and then charge the people that they have forced an
inconvenient journey upon to get to them, to pay to park as a revenue
stream.

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to
ask surely?

Circumventing Patientline
 

In article , Bill
wrote:
In message , J G Miller
writes

Who would have thought is possible ten or more years ago? (Not just the
technology but the economics as well.)

Just having an AM radio in the car was at one point a luxury for many
people.

Just having a car was a luxury, when I were a lad we had to make do with
the bus.

When I were a lad, my dad was a bus driver!

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Circumventing Patientline
 

In article , Norman Wells
wrote:
tim.... wrote:
"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...

There are many cases where hospitals have moved from (expensive), easy
to get to, town centre locations to cheaper out of the way edge of
town locations which are only accessible by car.

I doubt if any hospital is really accessible only by car. In my
experience, there are _always_ bus routes serving them.

Again, this depends on your definition of "really accessible".

The main hospital we have to use is in Dundee (Tayside), well away from the
center of the town. We are in Fife. The hospital was previously near the
center of Dundee.

We are fortunate in having a frequent bus service to Dundee - but not to
the hospital itself. For us that adds a walk to get from one stop to
another. OK for us.

But others who live in villages around Fife may have no bus service at all,
or just one or two busses a day. And may have to change more than once. I'm
not sure how many ill/worried people would call that "really accessible"
TBH.

Anyway, town centre locations are not necessarily easy to get to for
everyone, nor are they likely to have sufficient room for the car
parking they really need.

Erm, I thought the idea of saying they were "really accessible" by bus
would be that you'd have little need for car parking. :-)

Speaking simply from the local experience, getting to the hospital that was
in Dundee {DRI} was far easier than having to take another bus up to
Ninewells.

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly
service, to move to an out of the way location for *their* convenience
and then charge the people that they have forced an inconvenient
journey upon to get to them, to pay to park as a revenue stream.

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to
ask surely?

Will you convince him by calling him Shirley?... :-) ...or was your
'question' really just telling you view? And what if it is a *large*
'charge'? Are you the sole judge of what others may find "small"?

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Circumventing Patientline
 

J G Miller wrote:
On Sunday, March 18th, 2012, at 01:53:58h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

Ah, but I know the people here.

Which proves the point that you treat the newsgroup as
your own personal forum. ;+)

You're being ridiculous.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Norman Wells wrote:

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to
ask surely?

I don't mind paying. What I object to is not being able to find a
parking space.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Norman Wells
wrote:

The alternative is for the NHS to become a car park company
establishing and running free or subsidised car parks all over the
place not only for the patients but their sisters and their cousins
and their aunts as well. If there are limited funds available to
the NHS, as there always are, isn't it better that those funds
should be spent on medical facilities rather than running car parks?

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on
the medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back
to being involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the
rhetorical questions politicians like to 'ask'.

I don't think car parking charges have any bearing whatsoever on medical
outcomes. People, whether patients or visitors, shouldn't therefore
begrudge paying them, which will inevitably represent only a tiny
fraction of the cost of the treatment.

As regard the provision of TVs, I think the bearing on medical outcomes
is too tenuous to merit serious consideration for free provision. What
is it with mean and miserable patients who resent paying just the price
of a pint or two for TV when they're receiving all their other
facilities, including food, drink and endless pretty nurses, entirely
free of charge?

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

Circumventing Patientline
 

In article ,
wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

and, with pay in advance, you can easily end up with a penalty for
overstaying the time you had booked, if the specialist is running late
(quite usual).

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:29:58 +0000 (GMT), charles
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

and, with pay in advance, you can easily end up with a penalty for
overstaying the time you had booked, if the specialist is running late
(quite usual).

I would be less concerned about the cost than about having the correct
coinage to make payment.

It is undoubtedly an emotive subject - taxing the sick, taking money
from nurses on low wages etc.

Circumventing Patientline
 

In message , Scott
writes



I would be less concerned about the cost than about having the correct
coinage to make payment.

Exact coinage? These days, most pay-as-you-leave machines give change -
and take plastic.
--
ian

Circumventing Patientline
 

On 18/03/2012 13:47, Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Its a nice rhetorical answer, based on the assumption that no study has
been carried out to see if the benefits of which you speak are
outweighed in overall outcome by the path chosen.

(and indeed this is a rhetorical comment, since I don't know what study
(if any) as been carried out!)


--
Cheers,

John.

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Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:13:30 -0000, "Norman Wells"
wrote:

What
is it with mean and miserable patients who resent paying just the price
of a pint or two for TV when they're receiving all their other
facilities, including food, drink and endless pretty nurses, entirely
free of charge?

You've never paid National Insurance, then?

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
By Loch Long, twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

Circumventing Patientline
 

On 18/03/2012 15:35, tim.... wrote:
"Norman wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation
in the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't hospital
patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for facilities that they
are the ones using? They're the ones who are benefitting from the medical
treatment after all, and a substantial proportion of the money raised goes
back into hospital funds.

wrt to parking you're going to get the same answer that I posted the last
time that this was asked.

There are many cases where hospitals have moved from (expensive), easy to
get to, town centre locations to cheaper out of the way edge of town
locations which are only accessible by car.

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly service,
to move to an out of the way location for *their* convenience and then
charge the people that they have forced an inconvenient journey upon to get
to them, to pay to park as a revenue stream.

ISTM its also most unreasonable that people expect all the care and
facilities that modern medicine can provide to be made available in
outdated small buildings based in town where expansion is a costly,
complex, and bureaucratic minefield...

You can't have it both ways with regard to location. The same logic
applies to supermarkets etc.


--
Cheers,

John.

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Circumventing Patientline
 

On 18/03/2012 17:04, Norman Wells wrote:

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly
service, to move to an out of the way location for *their*
convenience and then charge the people that they have forced an
inconvenient journey upon to get to them, to pay to park as a revenue
stream.

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to ask
surely?

It does depend a little on the actual circumstances. It helps when they
car park in question has a method for reducing that cost in cases of
need (medical or financial). Paying three quid a visit for a day or two
may not be a problem, but if needing to do it 7 days a week for a month
or more*, could become quite a burden on a family.

* Especially if the need to visit is predicated on the requirement to
stop an elderly relative from being starved to death due to an inability
to feed themselves, and staff too busy (or worse) to actually do it for
them.


--
Cheers,

John.

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