The well known scammer, NEG plc, produced an faq for its 0870 surgery-scam line:

http://pencoedmedical.co.uk/pencoedmedical/news.htm

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Since the introduction of our new number at Llanharan and the recent articles in the press about 0870 numbers, we would like to inform our patients of the following points. Firstly, the Doctors at the surgery DO NOT "pocket" any profit from the use of the 0870 number, contrary to what is implied in some press articles. Our new number comes as a result of a new telephone handling system called "Surgery Line" supplied by a company called NEG. We have introduced this system to provide a better service to our patients and to enable our staff to cope with the enormous demands placed upon on them. A number of patients have expressed concern following recent press coverage of the use of these numbers nationally. In order to address some of the queries, NEG have prepared the following statement (shown in blue):

What does it cost to call a national rate 0870 number? The question of the cost of calling an 0870 number has various answers, this will depend on time of call, network provider and method of call. There are over 100 call providers in the UK and hundreds of different combinations of call plan/discount packages, all of which affect the actual cost. As with calling a Local Rate 0845 Number, there is no industry standard charge for calling a National Rate 0870 Number

What is the average cost? We have based our findings on the four largest (by customer base) UK Public Telephone Operators, BT, Cable & Wireless, Telewest and One.Tel. At the time of compiling this report, our investigations indicated that the peak charge for calling an 0870 number via the BT Network is 6.73 pence per minute. This compared to a maximum cost of 4.2 pence for the first minute of a call made to a local number (these costs include the minimum charge applied by most of the providers).
Calls made to an 0870 from a Mobile will range from 1.5 pence per minute to 12 pence. It is interesting to note that when calling from mobiles or payphones, there is no difference, as mobile phones do not differentiate between a National or Local Rate Call.

Will it cost our patients more to ring the surgery? If you base this question purely on a cost per minute calculation, then yes it will cost the caller more than a local rate call, however, our findings show that in 92% of cases, when using Surgery Line the operator answers the calls faster, the patients are put on hold less, and due to better line utilisation within the surgery, the patient is less likely encounter the engaged tone. Our records also indicate that the average time a patient is put on hold has been reduced substantially, so although there is a slight increase in the actual cost of the call per minute, the call is finished far quicker with no substantial overall cost increase to contact the Surgery via the telephone. It is also important to note that should a patient call at a time when the Surgery is not open (out of hours, training days, split Surgery times etc) the patient actually saves money as they now only make one telephone call as opposed to two. In addition, due to the fact that the telephone lines are less likely to be engaged, the patient also saves call charges because they no longer have the option of "press 5 for a call&#8209;back" costing from 10 pence a time.

Is this service fair? This is a very interesting point but in the overall majority of cases, most patients appreciate and acknowledge the increased benefits that Surgery Line provides. It is from an ethical point of view that the GP's Terms of Service state: GPs should not charge patients for treatment; if this implies that a patient should not have to pay in order to ring their Surgery, then surely a 0800 free&#8209;phone number is the only real option? Patients already have to pay if they choose to contact the Surgery by telephone, car or by public transport. From a legal stand point the subject of surgeries using 0870 Numbers was raised recently in the House of Commons, the following statement makes interesting reading: "Practices have the right to install telephone systems that charge patients extra to call the surgery, say ministers. Health minister John Hutton said telephone costs had to be covered by overall practice income 'like all other businesses" in response to a parliamentary written question. Mr Hutton added there were no plans to find out how many GPs were installing the 0870 lines or issue guidance" - Network Europe PLC September 2004
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Just picking out one lie:

Calls made to an 0870 from a Mobile will range from 1.5 pence per minute to 12 pence.

How do these people get away with such garbage?

Another article from earlier this year. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been referenced here before. Piece was written by Alastair Campbell of the Ideal Marketing Company - 4th March 2005.

http://www.firstpracticemanagement.co.uk/hot_topics5.asp

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After much heated debate, the use of 0870 numbers in GPs’ surgeries has now been effectively banned from use across the whole of the UK. The Department of Health issued a statement saying that the use of 0870 numbers would no longer be allowed with effect from April 14, 2005. In total, around 300 GPs were using 0870 numbers – so where does this leave them and their patients following the Government’s decision?

Whilst the D of H has stopped the use of the old 0870 number range, it is happy to endorse the use of 0844 numbers as a replacement. The new 0844 numbers are charged at a ‘lo-call’ rate, so are much cheaper to call than the 0870 prefix. At fractionally over 4p a minute, the cost of calling numbers with this prefix equates to the standard rate charged by BT between 6am and 6pm. This means that the vast majority of patients will see no difference in the charges they pay for calling their doctor. On the contrary, there is growing evidence that, because call durations are decreased, many patients may actually see an overall cost saving.

However, the very same week that the 0870 numbers became illegal, Gary Belfield Head of Primary Care has written to all PCTs to tell them to await a ruling by Ofcom (expected in June 2005) before transferring over to 0844 numbers. This is despite the work that the Department of Health had already done in the past few months to introduce the 0844 numbers to replace the 0870 numbers!

Upon further investigation, it appears that most of the concerns voiced by the NHS have already been answered at an earlier stage of the Ofcom consultation into the use of 0844 and 0845 numbers. According to a recent statement by NEG:


“Both NEG and the Department of Health were fully aware of this report published on the 22nd October 2004 and of the consultation close date of the 7th January 2005. We can only assume that the Governments recent announcement and indeed the sanctioning of the use of 084 numbers by the NHS on the 24th February were based on the findings of the Ofcom report. It is interesting to note that any recommendations currently being investigated post report draw no reference to the withdrawal of revenue sharing.

It seems the foundations and indeed the findings of the report refers to a clearer pricing structure for the advertised cost of calling NTS numbers (predominantly 0845 and 0870 numbers), which NEG is fully committed to and has been lobbying the major telecommunication companies for over 14 months. As such NEG is delighted that Ofcom will be issuing guidelines that all telco’s must adhere to when advertising the cost of calling these numbers.”

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