PATIENTLINE chairman Derek Lewis was last night fighting to keep his job after a leading investor hit out at the company's "abysmal" stock market performance.

Mr Lewis, who is the former director general of the Prison Service, is under pressure following an 80 per cent fall in the value of the hospital telephone group in the past 14 months.

It followed the removal of chief executive Per Jonsson, who was appointed less than a year ago but has seen the business hit by negative publicity following complaints about the cost of charges for incoming calls.

Leading rebel Shore Capital, which represents 17 per cent of shareholders, called the recent share price performance abysmal and called for an extraordinary general meeting to oust Mr Lewis.

It said: "We believe that the chairman who presided over the catalogue of problems is not the right person to lead this team to recovery."

But the board of Patientline backed Mr Lewis and said his presence was vital to turn the company around.

Patientline has installed 75,000 multi-media systems at beds in 156 hospitals, offering television screens, Internet access and telephones for patients.

It faced criticism because incoming phone calls were more expensive than calling Australia. Relatives are charged up to 49p a minute to phone an NHS hospital, compared with 22p a minute to call Australia on a typical BT line.

Patientline was cleared of any wrong-doing by regulator Ofcom, which said the company was not profiteering and the high prices stemmed from the terms of the licences issued by the Department of Health.

But Shore Capital said the company's image had suffered "from the perception that its charges for incoming calls are extortionate".

The rebels pointed to the fall in share price from a peak of 164p two years ago and 134.5p in November 2004 to a low of 23p last December. Shares closed at 27.25p on Friday.

Since it was founded a decade ago, Patientline has yet to make a profit and it reported losses of £11.8m on revenues of £49.4m in its last financial year.

In a statement to investors, Shore Capital said: "We are extremely alarmed by the collapse in value that has occurred at Patientline and we believe urgent action is required to address it."

Shore Capital said it had the backing of a further 10.8 per cent of shareholders and urged others to support its call to oust Mr Lewis and replace him with Shore Capital director and Hotel Corporation chairman James Douglas.

But independent director Mair Barnes said the board "unanimously supports" Mr Lewis.