idb wrote on Jul 30^th, 2007 at 12:49pm:


Mr Campbelll you are a bare faced liar.  It will always cost more to call an NEG Surgeryline number at 5p per minute than a national rate 01/02 number at 3p per minute on BT Option 1 from anywhere in the UK to anywhere in the UK.

Your whole business at NEG is based on telling disgusting lies to patients and doctors in order to con them in to believing it is not the ripoff that it in fact is.

You should be ashamed of yourself.  

I think I need to contact the Evening Post to set the record straight with them on the cost of 0844 phone calls.

Dave wrote on Jul 30^th, 2007 at 8:51pm:


Does BT Light User Scheme and In Contact Plus still exist and if so do they still charge 7p or 8p per minute for a national call peak rather than 3p per minute?

If so then I suppose that is the straw at which Mr Campbell is desperately clutching, even though only about 0.1% of callers in the weekday daytime could possibly be using this tariff.

bbb_uk wrote on Jul 30^th, 2007 at 9:26pm:

From the BT Price List, Light User Scheme is covered here and In Contact Plus is here.

http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/Documents/222/14%20Sept.05%20-%20Joint%20meeting%...

Joint Meeting

CLWYD COMMUNITY HEALTH COUNCIL
and
DENBIGHSHIRE LOCAL HEALTH BOARD

held on

Wednesday, 14 September 2005
Naylor Leyland Centre, Well Street, Ruthin


Most Recent Out of Hours Monitoring

The Director of Development and Performance Management tabled a summary report on the latest position.  She explained that the full monitoring document was very long but available to members should they request it.

There was still significant demand for the service.  Total contacts in July 2005 were 5029 and in June around 4000.  A number of callers were now hanging up when getting the recorded message that it was an emergency service; this lessened one of the problems previously encountered.  The new systems in place at the Out of Hours centre were working very well and the number of “ineffective calls” had dropped considerably.  Denbighshire appeared to have more patients attending face-to-face than other areas and this was probably due to the proximity of the centre permitting easier access.  

An important point to report was that Morfa-Doc had changed the contact telephone number because of increasing concern of the cost of the call which was significant to patients.  The new number was an 0844 number which mean it was a local-call charge.  It would cost the service more but the patients would have cheaper access.  At present anyone dialling the old number would be diverted to the new one.  All the latest patient information contained the new number.  The change had taken effect from 1 September 2005 and no problems had been reported to date.  The CHC were asked to let the LHB know if they received any such reports. The LHB Chair said this was good news as there had been concerns about the use of premium numbers in some parts of the country.  It was good to know that Denbighshire had a “low-cost” number.  There was a point raised over the use of mobile phones as it was believed “low-cost” calls were charged at the normal rate.  This would be looked into.

The Chief Executive confirmed that a statement would be made in County Voice and the local press at the end of September.  The CHC queried whether it was going into Talking News and the Chief Executive said he would check that point

http://www.hastingsandrotherpct.nhs.uk/pct_documents/2006_documents/2006-01-26_m...

HASTINGS AND ST LEONARDS PRIMARY CARE TRUST AND
BEXHILL AND ROTHER PRIMARY CARE TRUST
JOINT BOARD MEETING
Minutes of the meeting on Thursday 26th January 2006
at Battle Memorial Hall

7.6. Questions from the Public: The following questions were received from the
public:

2. Can the Board tell this meeting what percentage of GP Practices in
Hastings and St Leonards have opted to use 0844 telephone number for their
surgeries? How does that compare with the national take up? What is the
percentage for Bexhill?
The Chair responded: None of the GP Practices in Hastings and St Leonards
use 0844 numbers, in Bexhill and Rother three of the eleven practices now
have an 0844 telephone number which equates to just over 27%. We have
asked the Department of Health for the national take up figures, but as yet,
they have not been able to supply us with this information.
3. Given that submissions made by the practices that they have converted to
0844 numbers included the claim that they would be able to fund additional
nursing staff from the additional revenue, how many additional nursing staff
are employed by those practices?
The Chair responded: The claim that revenue generated from a telephone
system would be used to fund additional nursing staff was made by one
practice who originally installed an 0870 national rate number. Shortly
afterwards they changed to an 0844 number, which as a low-call number,
does not generate the same revenue and would not be enough to fund
additional nursing staff.
4. Given the mobility of many patients, what information is provided to holiday
makers and long term vacationers to contact their practices should the need
arise, from outside the UK?
Of the three practices in Bexhill and Rother with 0844 telephone numbers, all
are amending their practice leaflets to include the number to telephone from
abroad. Practice websites are also being updated and one practice has
displayed the information on posters at the surgery.

lompos wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2007 at 4:38pm:

I'm amazed your out of hours uses a geographic number - the one in my area uses an 0845 number unfortunately .

lompos wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2007 at 5:10pm:

The number is 0845 120 3161. This document (http://www.bradfordairedale-pct.nhs.uk/NR/rdonlyres/32DA787D-A978-4625-8D89-08DF...) seems to suggest it is via NHS Direct, so I doubt a geographic number could be found. However, it is run by a company called Local Care Direct - their website suggests their three call centres are in Bradley, Leeds and Wakefield, and that the centres are linked (the 0845 number probably works as their call management system - redirecting calls if the line is busy).