Premier distances itself from pricing changes announced by industry competitor Patientline today

Premier wishes to re-affirm it is investigating ways of reducing, rather than increasing, patient charges. We have been working closely with the Department of Health & our Trusts to find ways of reducing charges at existing sites, whilst simultaneously developing new products & services that are cheaper to install & allow inbound call rates to be reduced to 20p per min.

Premier have commenced rollout of their new Easitalk & Easiview products into hospitals. The ‘Easi’ range has been specifically designed to reduce patient charges, with inbound calls charged at 20p per minute & outbound calls charged at just 10p per minute to local, national & most international numbers (including the USA & Australia). Patient feedback on the new products & pricing has been tremendous & we are receiving significant interest on this ‘refreshing approach’ from Trusts who currently do not have a bedside TV/Phone system installed.

In the meantime at sites previously installed we have been successfully trialing…

• Alternative TV packages that better align with the needs of differing patient groups (short stay, long stay etc). Patient feedback on these packages has been excellent & usage rates have risen as a consequence. Our 6 day package has been particularly well received by longer stay patients (who normally carry the greatest cost burden) – they’re now able to watch TV for a little under £2.10 per day
• Outbound call rates from just 10p per minute. Patient feedback on these trial rates has been excellent & average call lengths have risen as a consequence. The improved ‘affordability’ provides a useful alternative to being dependant upon friends & family phoning in at premium rates

We already offer a range of screen based services from internet access to movies on-demand. These services are not bundled in with TV purchases, as in our view patients should have the choice of whether they wish to access these services or not. Prices for these services start from just 50p, so if a patient just wants to surf the internet then they’ll pay just 50p – they don’t have to buy a TV package for the privilege.

We also continue to allow patients to refund any un-used credit at the end of their stay. The cost of using our services is therefore based on our tariffs, rather than the cost of buying a pay card. This is in direct contrast to some of our competitors who offer no cash refund – the cost of using their system is at least the cost of buying a pay card each day (typically a £5 minimum vend)

We continue to explore ways of offering better value for money for our customers