Hi,

Our doctors surgery have changed there phone number to 08444 771789 can you please help in finding the Geographical number,  the address of the surgery is:

Woodlands Surgery
Tilgate Way
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 5BS

Many Thanks

I'm afraid the chances of finding an alternative to a surgery number that has moved over to 0844 are very slim.

A lot of surgeries have moved over to these numbers costing 4ppm or 5ppm all the time due to something called 'Surgery Line' by NEG.  NEG will have disconnected the surgeries existing geographical number and given them a new geographical number with the 0844 linked to it.

A few FOI requests to surgeries in the past seem to reveal that the surgery isn't aware of their underlying geographical number as it seems that NEG keep this to themselves.  FOI requests have revealed that surgeries are receiving money for people calling them on this number as well.

There are a few threads on NEG Surgery Line here, here, here, here and here.

The best you can do is you and other patients complain to the surgery about the costs of these numbers whereas beforehand they were cheaper and included in inclusive call packages (assuming you have one).  As mentioned earlier, calls cost 4p/min or 5p/min all the time from a BT landline.  Other landline providers may charge more for these calls and calls from payphones and mobiles can cost anywhere upto 40p/min.

bbb_uk wrote on May 18^th, 2006 at 1:12pm:

As mentioned earlier, calls cost 4p/min or 5p/min all the time from a BT landline.  Other landline providers may charge more for these calls and calls from payphones and mobiles can cost anywhere upto 40p/min.

Yes, those 4p or 5p/minute charges are from a BT residential landline.

The costs from a telephone box are extortionately higher (IIRC, they're 10p for each time period of 45 or 55 seconds).

Thanks for the replies

I know its not a huge amount to have to pay to ring your doctors surgery, but its the principle of being charged to get an appointment.  I will moan every time I have to ring the surgery from now on.

I believe that this is an NEG installation as the number begins 0844 477. Others who have NEG have similar numbers. This prefix is allocated to Opal Telecom, a part of Carphone Warehouse.

Opal Telecom don't appear to have an allocation in every STD code that NEG operates, so I wonder who's numbers they will be. The NEG website doesn't appear to give anything away as to who they use for their telecoms.

The only clue (if it is one) is on the About Us page. When you hover over the Cable Telecom logo, it says "Cable Telecom Plc are part of the Network Europe Group."

When you go to the Cable Telecom website it redirects you to Telstra Europe, with the message "As part of our ongoing company integration the
Cable Telecom website has been incorporated at: www.telstra.co.uk"

So what is/was the connection to Cable Telecom? It seems pretty sloppy, to say the least, of NEG that they have Cable Telecom as part of their Group. Or has NEG bought Telstra and forgotten to update the website?  ::) ::)

For those who don't know, Telstra is Australia's state-owned telecoms provider, a bit like what BT was in the UK.

It appears that issues caused by private monopoly telecommunications services are not peculiar to the UK; Citizens Against Selling Telstra, although Telstra apparently makes a profit for the state, unlike BT.

Do they (now Telstra) provide the telecoms for NEG? I notice that Telstra Europe seem to have an allocation of geographical numbers in the areas that have 'NEGed' surgeries. So is it a Telstra number(s) that this surgery uses? The prefix is 01293 93, so just 10,000 numbers to try then...  ::)