BRITISH TELECOM'S ULTIMATE MAÑANA MOMENT - WE'LL GET AN ENGINEER OUT

							                    NEWS RELEASE FROM
         THE REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION

                                                                Issued 19th March 2007

 BRITISH TELECOM’S ULTIMATE MAÑANA MOMENT –
    “WE’LL GET AN ENGINEER OUT AT THE END OF THIS
        WEEK”, BIRMINGHAM-BASED RNHA TOLD
Taking the mañana approach towards getting urgent jobs done may be something
more commonly associated with a sun-drenched island paradise, but Birmingham’s
British Telecom are being labelled the ultimate mañana merchants because it is taking
them seven days to assign an engineer even to look at a line fault, let alone fix it.

Not best pleased with British Telecom is the Registered Nursing Home Association
(RNHA), representing over 1,200 nursing homes nationwide, which has its
headquarters in the Kings Norton area of the city.

Having reported a fault on its landlines last Saturday morning, the RNHA has been
told that it will be next Friday before an engineer can start work on locating the
problem.

Commented RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “It’s not exactly the level of
service that BT customers have a right to expect. Communication is the lifeblood of
any national organisation like ours. Over a typical week we would expect to receive
hundreds of calls from nursing home owners and managers around the country, as
well as from members of the public seeking advice about nursing homes, and many
other organisations wanting information.”

The RNHA also helps nursing homes to submit details of prospective employees for
checks by the Criminal Records Bureau. Not being on the end of a phone risks
delaying the timely and efficient administration of the system.

For the moment, would-be callers to the RNHA’s Birmingham headquarters are being
asked to email it at info@rnha.co.uk or to phone individual staff mobile numbers if
they know them.

“It’s far from ideal,” said Mr Ursell. “Would British Telecom themselves like to be
without landlines to their own office, I wonder? Perhaps they would try a little faster
if their business was cut off to the outside world.”

                                         END

For further information and comment, please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 07785 227000 mobile. Unfortunately, the 0121-451 1088 is not available until,
at some point in the future, British Telecom can get round to investigating the
problem.