Quote from DAIL MAIL with a mention of this site at the end.

"GPs dial in to the great 0870 scam
by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail 09:25am 1st February 2005


The Health Service has been accused of trying to cash in on the sick by introducing rip-off 0870 numbers for local doctors' surgeries.

Calls to the numbers are charged at just under 8p a minute, more than double the amount most people pay for phone calls.

Banks, utility companies and government departments are generating massive windfalls from what are effectively premium-rate lines because most large organisations which use 0870 numbers take a slice of the call cost.

Daily Mail readers reacted with fury to the revelations about the 0870 scam. It now appears the NHS has jumped on the gravy train at the expense of patients trying to contact their GP.

An estimated 300 doctors' surgeries across the country have introduced 0870 numbers in recent months in partnership with a company called Network Europe Group.

NEG supplies telephone systems to surgeries in return for a slice of the call charge imposed on patients.

The net effect is that doctors and the NHS get a 'free' or cheap phone system while NEG makes money from call charges. However, all of this is effectively paid for by patients.

Labour MP Dr Howard Stoate, the only practising GP in the Commons, said: "This is a very worrying trend. We are effectively looking at charging for the NHS by the back door.

"Patients who need an appointment or advice don't have any alternative but to pay this charge.

Campaign to bypass 0870 and 0845 numbers

"Doctors will say this is a good way of them improving their phone systems but I don't believe this should be subsidised by patient call charges."

Most Britons currently pay a maximum of 3p a minute for national or local calls under discount packages. However, calls to 0870, and 0845, numbers are excluded from these packages.

The Lib Dem MP for Cornwall North, Paul Tyler, said government departments and agencies were generating huge amounts by using 0870 numbers. It appears the Home Office has 19 such lines while the DVLA makes £1.1million a year from its 0870 prefixes.

Mr Tyler said: "It is a rip-off. Those who ask for information they are entitled to as citizens are facing very high charges. These are effectively premium rate phone lines."

Mail readers from across the country yesterday complained about the 0870 rip-off. One said: "It is disgraceful that I should have to pay 8p per minute for a questioning session from the NHS if I become ill."

A second said: "At least with a commercial firm you can chose to deal with them or not. This is not possible for doctors' surgeries." Another said: "Lets get this disgusting rip-off halted."

NEG said those dialling the system it uses in surgeries are generally on the line for less time than in the past. So while the call charge per minute was higher, they did not pay much more.

A campaign has begun among consumers to bypass 0870 and 0845 numbers.

The website saynoto0870.com offers alternative, cheaper, numbers for major organisations."

Sorry, I forgot to include this bit

"Works in conjunction with your current number "

Will the people that continue to dial the old number find that it has, somewhat cynically, been altered?

Possibly a result (well at least in terms of 0870, but not 0844). See what tomorrow brings:

>>>

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=398316&in_p...

0870 phone lines ban for GPs
Michael Clarke, This is Money
23 February 2005

DOCTORS surgeries are to be banned from using expensive 0870 telephone numbers amid concerns consumers are being ripped off.
Around 400 UK GP surgeries currently use the numbers, which can charge up to 10p a minute, but the Department of Health is expected to announce a ban and a raft of other measures from tomorrow.

The Department is concerned consumers are being overcharged when trying to undertake a simple task, such as making an appointments with their GP.

The DoH announced it was investigating 0870 numbers, usually the domain of large businesses and retailers, in January. A spokesman said: 'We do not want to see patients paying over the odds when accessing local services.'

The numbers cost Britons £1.25bn in 2003 and can work out at more than twice the cost of local call. It is believed the DoH will enable GP surgeries to use an 0844 telephone number, which is cheaper than its 0870 and 0845 counterparts. The average 0844 call costs 4.25p per minute, against 6.73p for an 0870 number.

Telephone services provider Network Europe Group, said demand from GP surgeries for the special numbers was outstripping the speed at which it could install them. The company claimed the lines reduced the time callers spent on the phone to their local surgery from four-and-a-half minutes to just two.

Surgeries adopting the numbers have come under fire from local communities, which have been angered at both the cost and impersonal nature of the service.

Organisations using expensive 0870 and 0845 numbers may be forced to advertise the cost of the calls on promotional literature under plans by the telecoms watchdog.

Ofcom wants the numbers to be treated the same way as premium rate 090 numbers, with both promotion and content monitored. Ofcom is also planning to ban companies from sharing the revenue from the calls, which means the longer they keep customers hanging on, the more money they make.

Quote:


I trust you will point out to the DOH the fact that these 0844 numbers cost 13p per minute at all times to call from a BT Payphone compared to 11p per minute for 0870 and only 2p per minute for a geographic number starting 01 or 02.  Also that 0844 numbers cost 5p per minute to call from a BT landline on Saturday morning compared to 2p per minute for 0870 and 5.5p for 60 minutes for a geographic number.

I can't believe the audacity of NEG in trying to switch to an equally scam filled so called granulated (presumably falling through a sieve with very large holes) 0844 tariff rather than at least an 0845 which they can point to loads of legitimate government information lines etc currently using.

If you have the right contacts on this at the DOH please make sure to inform them of the full facts.

I noticed that one too, I suppose as a legitimate use of the telephone its customers will be able to claim the VAT back?

How many of the patients of the average GP are registered for VAT?

It is another subject but it really grates when people who use their company's phone for everything do not only not pay the VAT but do not pay for the phone call as well.

How would they know what it costs? And what would they care what the number is? Could be a pound a minute for all they care.

The VAT people do not care. The Inland Revenue don't do much.

Just a little rant, Sorry.

Quote:

I am rather disappointed in the producer, Dan Saladino, with regards to today's You & Yours.  I know that somebody in this forum had patiently tried to explain just how evil 0844 numbers were and that they were basically as bad or even worse than 0870.

Basically both the Doctor guy from the NHS and the women presenter totally fell for the line that the 0844 number was nowhere near as bad as 0870.

This is so blatantly not the case.  0844 costs 13p per minute from a payphone compared to 11p for 0870 and only 2p per minute for geographic numbers.  0844 is as bad as 0870 so how can the NHS fall for this.  No wonder they allowed the 0870 numbers to happen in the first place.

I don't think this Melanie Abbot reporter girl can be much good compared to Paraic O'Brien who has now gone off to work for Radio London instead.  It just seems they believe whatever rubbish that NEG put in front of them and ignore emails that other people send them.

Heading for above.

Q&A: how to stop the phone scams.
By Chris Johnston, Times Online