An angry Rosie Cooper’s intervened in the ongoing Hospedia row.

Their call charges came to her attention after she was contacted by a constituent, Ms. Irene Simpkin, who paid £11 for phoning her elderly mother at Southport Hospital, where visitors are banned.

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital contacted the company requesting that cost of calls to patients be reduced or redirected to the hospital so that bills for relatives contacting loved ones there could be reduced.

In response, Hospedia indicated that they would charge the Trust £10,000 per month.

Yesterday, Cooper responded: “I am absolutely disgusted by the actions of heartless Hospedia who are cashing in on the Coronavirus crisis.

“Businesses up and down the country are bending over backwards to support the effort, restaurants providing free meals, launderettes washing NHS workers’ clothes for free, but here we have Hospedia charging premium rates for phonecalls to inpatients and offering to take the charge off the public but only in return for £10,000 per month from the hospital!

"The NHS should end the contract with heartless profiteering Hospedia as soon as possible.

“At a time such as this when we are warning the public about potential scammers, it is clear we don’t have to look too far to see where some businesses are happy to make a quickbuck while others suffer.

“I have brought this to the attention of the Health Secretary demanding that he urgently intervene so that families can get to speak to their loved ones who are in hospital without the worry of overly expensive phone bills.”

Originally called Patientline this service was brought in under the last Labour Government.