PATIENTS at Ipswich Hospital have seen the price of making telephone calls from their bedside drop.Patientline, which provides communication and entertainment services to hospital bedsides, has announced it is to reduce prices of outgoing telephone calls.

PATIENTS at Ipswich Hospital have seen the price of making telephone calls from their bedside drop.

Patientline, which provides communication and entertainment services to hospital bedsides, has announced it is to reduce prices of outgoing telephone calls.

The cost of making calls from the bedside yesterday went back to 10 pence a minute, what it was before Patientline announced a160 per cent charge increase in April this year, putting the price up to 26p.

The minimum call charge has also gone back to 10p, down from 40p.

However, friends and relatives making calls from home to the patients will still be paying 49p a minute during peak times, and 39p off peak.

And the price of using television, internet, e-mail and games remains at £2.90 a day.

Charlotte Brown, Patientline commercial director, said: “This is the second price reduction we have made this year, having reduced the cost of watching television from a hospital bed in April.”

An investigation by Ofcom, which regulates phone and television services, last year claimed the firm could be breaking competition laws because of the high charges for dialling into hospitals.

In April the company announced it was £80m in debt and needed to recoup costs after investing £180m in its terminals.

Ipswich Hospital's website says mobile phones can be used in main entrance areas, corridors and restaurants but not in wards, outpatient clinics and other clinical areas.

nWhat do you think of the Patientline service? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk