A PREMIUM rate phone line for people calling Worcestershire Royal Hospital has left an 82-year-old Malvern woman with an “extortionate” bill.

Helen Alison, from Clerkenwell Crescent, spent 10 days at the hospital just before Easter to go undergo tests and treatment for a blood condition.

Her daughter, Susan Alison, minded her house while she was away and made regular phone-calls to her mother’s bedside to find out how she was.

After being released from hospital, Mrs Alison found out the calls had cost her more than £77.

She said: “ I knew the telephone was expensive, but was horrified to get my monthly bill, normally £20-£25, it was £111.24.

“This seems like daylight robbery to me, and it does not, of course, cover any calls I made out from the hospital, another expensive luxury.”

The itemised bill shows that she was being charged £13.74 for a call lasting 30 minutes.

She believes the calls carried a warning of the premium rate before connection, but that many people will have more pressing concerns if they are calling a hospital.

“It just didn’t occur to me it would be anything like that kind of money. Apparently my daughter said something about it at the time, but what with one thing and the other I didn’t think how much it was going to total,” she said.

Ruwan Kodikara, spokesman for Hospedia, which runs the patient telephone system at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, said: “When Hospedia acquired Patientline last year we inherited a business model reliant on call and TV charges generated from patients. Bedside units typically cost over £1,500 to install at no cost to the NHS. The new Hospedia management team are committed to reducing phone charges and are conducting bundle trials that give patients free unlimited calls, reduce the cost of inbound calls and offer new premium channels.”