Hospicom: Poor Quality Hospital TV

Here we go again. After all the problems of attempting to get credit so that Carol could have the hospital television service in her ward, I have had a very frustrating time this afternoon trying to get her card topped up so she can watch television. I had taken a £10 note out of the A.T.M. in the foyer area as you walk in through the main hospital entrance. As Carol was asleep when I arrived on the ward, I thought it worth my while topping up the card for her as it was down to about £2 (it costs £5 per day)and it was likely to expire around 9 p.m. Would I find a vending machine that A) was actually operational B) took my £10 note and C) actually credited the money to the card. The first machine, just along the corridor from Ward 20, would not take the £10 note. It merely spat it out in what I can only describe as a fit of temper. I tried it the other way round, in fact, I tried it in as many permutations as I could think, but still it would not take it. I did wonder whether it might be because I was using the new version of £10. I wasn't going to be defeated by a machine and was determined to get this card topped up and then went to the next machine which I knew was in the corridor  on the floor below. But this machine was working but it wouldn't accept the £10 note. I was beginning by now to feel somewhat annoyed, as you can imagine and had to walk back towards the main entrance, a good long way along more corridors (why is it that there are so many corridors at Milton Keynes Hospital? It has to be one of the most appallingly poorly designed place, no sensible person would have it spread out over such a large area. Why on earth didn't they merely build a couple of multi-storey blocks and use the space better with fewer corridors and make those visiting a good deal easier and simplify the place) The next vending machine I came to was exactly the same as the other two but this time I came across a man who was attempting to do exactly as I was. His mother was in the hospital having had a stroke, He had put his card into the machine but it hadn't returned it to him complete with £10 of credit on it. It was by now that I decided that I would have to find somewhere to give me change for the note and give me ten one-pound pieces and so feed these individually into one of the working machines. Having walked all the way back to the main entrance I first tried the Costa branch which is one of three units selling food, drink, newspapers and other items. But, no, Costa couldn't change the note for me. Next I went into Subway, again, no joy and finally, the grocery/newsagents, called Little Fresh. But no change there either. I was beginning to get a bit annoyed, as you can imagine. I then went to the reception desk. Then the man who had lost his card in one of the vending machines turned up and we both either wanted cash or at least a telephone number to ring which would get us through to someone who had responsibility for these machines. The helpline which Hospicom had wasn't in the least bit helpful. We discovered it was just an answering service and it looked as if they wouldn't respond as it was the weekend. Nobody on the hospital site was able to help us with our problem. The receptionist on the front desk contacted the security manager as apparently he had the keys to the vending machines (although why on earth he would be responsible for these wretched machines.) It was actually the Site Manager who should have been able to deal with this matter, but being a weekend there was no one available to solve the problem. After some considerable time the security manager arrived and it turned out he was standing in for the actual person and didn't seem able to deal with the situation until pushed by the gentleman who had his card swallowed by the vending machine. The security man was able to put an 'out of order' sign on the offending machine and I think he gave the man a fully charged card to replace the lost card, which solved that problem.

One of the reception staff went to the Little Fresh shop to attempt to get me £10 of change from the note, with little success. I eventually went and the man on the counter took coins out of the float tin they had which solved the problem for me and I was able to top up the card at the vending machine on the lower floor I'd attempted to use earlier. The whole situation had taken well over an hour and had been very frustrating and annoying but it did at least have a resolution, thankfully.