Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust use a 0845 number to access both Cheltenham and Gloucester hospitals. I asked what the geographical equivalents for this number were (they are listed on saynoto0870 but the 01242 222222 number rings with no answer).
The reply I got actually answered more questions than I asked but FWIW here it is. I have asked for an answer to my question about the 222222 number not ringing.

The 0845 number was introduced to improve patient’s access to the Trust’s telephony service.
The system has been introduced to speed up the processing of calls and callers are immediately connected to the automated switchboard rather than having to wait for an operator to be free. If callers know which person or department they wish to speak to they merely have to state the name and they are connected. There is also a direct dialling facility (DDI) for most departments for those callers who are aware of the Direct Dial number and the new service enable us to expand this facility. This information is increasingly being included in patient correspondence and information.

The system does not however replace the hospital operators who are still available to callers if they need them. At any point during a call, a caller can get through to the hospital switchboard by saying “operator”. The system also automatically defaults to the operator after two failed attempts by the caller to connect to an individual or department.

With regard to your concern that additional money may be being obtained from the 0845 number, I can assure you that this is not a tactic or policy employed by the Trust simply to extract more revenue. Most of the national publicity surrounding high charges to new centralised switchboards has concentrated on the “national” rate 0870 numbers rather than the “local” rate 0845 numbers.

It is undoubtedly true that there is great confusion about the range and costs of telephone services now available to the public; one of the inevitable consequences of increasing choice.

The Trust does benefit financially from a very small amount of revenue sharing from the telecoms service provider which amounts to around £35,000 per annum. However, this was agreed in the context of the major upgrade of telephony services in 2002/03 involving a capital investment of over £140,000 and annual running costs of the telephony service of around £500,000. This investment has enabled us to improve telephone services and provide much more flexibility, for example in relation to services which are provided from multiple locations being able to offer a single number to patients thus avoiding confusion and delay.

A further major attraction of this arrangement was that when callers dial an 0845 number they are charged “local call” rates regardless from where they are dialling. With Trust services increasingly affecting patients over an expanded geographical area, this was seen as a major improvement in quality and customer service. Under the old arrangements many patients from the outlying parts of the county would have fallen into the national call charge rate when telephoning some of our hospitals.

With the vast range of telecom providers it is of course difficult to define one “local rate” However, we feel that our charges are very competitive and reasonable within the context of the “local rate” market. They are:

3.08p per minute for the first 75 seconds at peak times and 1p per minute thereafter.

0.870p per minute for the first 300 seconds at off peak times and 0.25p per minute thereafter.

0.390p per minute for the first 300 seconds at weekend times and 0.090 per minute thereafter.

The trust revenue sharing scheme adds a small amount to this (0.87p at peak times)

more like the NHS trust didnt ask any questions.

*In the style of dixons*
Q: Yeah could you tell me how much bad press we will get for using this system?
A: Ang on a mo mate, I will have to ask my supervisor.