Carol is stuck in hospital, as you will be aware, and as a result she is finding it increasingly more and more boring as the days go by. I am perfectly aware that you are there to be made better, but it seems really unfair that you are not allowed to have access to television, even if it's to alleviate the boredom. I remember when I was in hospital there was a television on the ward even if it had the basic channels, which today it would be Freeview, which requires no subscription. But in Milton Keynes Hospital they have what is called Hospicom, which is fed into the wards via a unit which is on a wall-mounted device which you can pull down so that you can view from the comfort of your bed. This unit also includes a telephone, no doubt a bit defunct today when everyone has their own personal mobile phone.
This service is not free to use. So what's new? In order to use the system you need to purchase a card from one of the cash machines which are dotted around the corridors of the hospital. Carol wanted to watch something this afternoon and she loves The Chase which is a gameshow on ITV in the afternoon. So I went out of the ward in an attempt to find one of the cash machines and so get a card to operate this television system. I walked some considerable distance and found a machine and then found it would only take cash, either coins or notes. I had no cash of any description in my wallet so had to walk all the way back to the hospital entrance where there was an A.T.M. machine. Having walked all the way to this machine I had to return to the machine nearest to the ward where Carol is a patient. I then put one of the £10 notes into the machine, but it was rejected. I tried it several more times as I thought perhaps it had to be inserted in a different way. But how many different variations are there with regards inserting a £10 note into such a device? Perhaps not many. It then occurred to me that perhaps the machine didn't take the new £10 notes. I tried a £5 note, but again no job. I was getting somewhat frustrated and found another machine, but this would not accept the notes. I asked a member of staff where there might be a working machine and was directed to one on the lower floor, but this one turned out to be 'out of order.' So I gave up trying and returned to Carol on Ward 20, but why on earth are these machines out of order or why do they not accept the new £10 notes? They should be up-dated to take the new notes.
I don't usually add more to a blog once it's published, but for once I'll make an exception. Carol's friend Pauline visited again last night and she managed to get a card for the Hospicom system for Carol. When I came in on Thursday morning I had enough in £1 coins to be able to top up the card so Carol could watch television. It apparently costs £5 a day, so I walked to the nearest vending machine which was along the corridor from Ward 20. It was a real effort to insert each coins separately and thus manage to top up the card to £10. But on completing the transaction (SO long-winded. You couldn't put all the coins in at once, only one at a time.) At the end the digital read-out told me there was £6 on the card, which made me wonder there the lost £4 had gone. Very odd. On returning to the ward I went into the side room where Carol is and told her and one of the nurses told me a representative from Hospicom was in the ward, so I told her and she managed to ring the company base and the remaining £4 was duly added to the total on the card. so things were rectified and all were happy, but what a palaver and bother! Why is this thing so complicated? Why can't you pay using a debit or credit card, similar to one of the options when you pay for parking or other similar transactions? Why do you have to put the coins in one by one and not all together? No rhyme or reason.
This service is not free to use. So what's new? In order to use the system you need to purchase a card from one of the cash machines which are dotted around the corridors of the hospital. Carol wanted to watch something this afternoon and she loves The Chase which is a gameshow on ITV in the afternoon. So I went out of the ward in an attempt to find one of the cash machines and so get a card to operate this television system. I walked some considerable distance and found a machine and then found it would only take cash, either coins or notes. I had no cash of any description in my wallet so had to walk all the way back to the hospital entrance where there was an A.T.M. machine. Having walked all the way to this machine I had to return to the machine nearest to the ward where Carol is a patient. I then put one of the £10 notes into the machine, but it was rejected. I tried it several more times as I thought perhaps it had to be inserted in a different way. But how many different variations are there with regards inserting a £10 note into such a device? Perhaps not many. It then occurred to me that perhaps the machine didn't take the new £10 notes. I tried a £5 note, but again no job. I was getting somewhat frustrated and found another machine, but this would not accept the notes. I asked a member of staff where there might be a working machine and was directed to one on the lower floor, but this one turned out to be 'out of order.' So I gave up trying and returned to Carol on Ward 20, but why on earth are these machines out of order or why do they not accept the new £10 notes? They should be up-dated to take the new notes.
I don't usually add more to a blog once it's published, but for once I'll make an exception. Carol's friend Pauline visited again last night and she managed to get a card for the Hospicom system for Carol. When I came in on Thursday morning I had enough in £1 coins to be able to top up the card so Carol could watch television. It apparently costs £5 a day, so I walked to the nearest vending machine which was along the corridor from Ward 20. It was a real effort to insert each coins separately and thus manage to top up the card to £10. But on completing the transaction (SO long-winded. You couldn't put all the coins in at once, only one at a time.) At the end the digital read-out told me there was £6 on the card, which made me wonder there the lost £4 had gone. Very odd. On returning to the ward I went into the side room where Carol is and told her and one of the nurses told me a representative from Hospicom was in the ward, so I told her and she managed to ring the company base and the remaining £4 was duly added to the total on the card. so things were rectified and all were happy, but what a palaver and bother! Why is this thing so complicated? Why can't you pay using a debit or credit card, similar to one of the options when you pay for parking or other similar transactions? Why do you have to put the coins in one by one and not all together? No rhyme or reason.
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