Time to draw the line

10:29am Monday 28th April 2008

IT'S fair to say that my recent column about Patientline, the private company providing television and telephone services in hospitals, has struck a chord with a lot of people.

The latest letter comes from Mary Bunting, of Shildon, who has never written to a newspaper before but felt she had to put pen to paper about Patientline.

Her experiences were not dissimilar to my own, when my father was in James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. The same frustrations, the same anger that someone old, vulnerable and sick was being let down.

This is what Mary wrote: "My husband has been very ill for several months. To make matters worse, he has fallen twice, first fracturing his elbow and then breaking his hip.

"He first went into Darlington Memorial Hospital, then transferred to Bishop Auckland. By this time, he was really depressed - he will be 84 in August.

"We thought we would ease some stress so we put £10 on the Patientline service so he could watch sport on a weekend especially - he really loves his sport.

"We got the card on Thursday, April 10, but the equipment was out of order. They said it would be repaired immediately but by Saturday - NOTHING.

Then they said they couldn't do anything until Monday. Monday came - NOTHING. At the time of writing it is April 16 - NOTHING.

"I am really disgusted and angry with Patientline to let sick people down so badly. It's not the money - it's the issue."

I spoke to Mary when her letter arrived and, to be fair to Patientline, the repair was carried out shortly after she wrote. Her £10 was returned and her husband was given a week's free viewing.

But she also told me that relatives of other patients had spoken to her about their Patientline frustrations. Why does the equipment break down so frequently and why can't it be fixed more quickly?

And are our hospitals really happy for this appalling level of service, which is causing so much stress to patients, to continue?

LAST Wednesday, Northern Cross, the admirable Catholic newspaper for the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, held its annual general meeting at the Tyneside Irish Centre, in the shadow of St James' Park, where they often pray for miracles.

As guest speaker, I talked of the perils of literals (or misprints) in newspapers and, in his vote of thanks, Father Dennis Tindall told of the press release which had just arrived from the Council of Christians and Jews.

The press release, about a forthcoming meeting of the council, was presumably intended to let people know that there would be "refreshments and informal conversation afterwards".

Instead, it promised "refreshments and informal conversion".

Maybe it wasn't a mistake after all.

IT is a matter of record that I recently underwent a conversion of my own - into the Northern Cross's official racing tipster, known as The Barron.

After my first two tips - Tidal Bay (6-1) and Denman (5-2) - came in at Cheltenham, the Grand National selection of Point Barrow failed to finish.

I did, however, add the postscript: "I was talking to the North's top trainer, Mark Johnston, at the Middleham Open Day on Good Friday and he told me he believes that a three-year-old called Campanologist will turn into a star this year"

Campanologist went on to win at Newmarket at 9-2 and is now tipped for bigger and better things.

Campanologist has my ringing endorsement - I urge you to keep the faith.

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