Tippy wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 10:28am:



Maybe you could have a look at my surgery and PCT,(Central Lancs) who are using 0844 and will not acknowledge my emails, even though before Christmas the surgery said they could not alter anything until after Christmas, well we are definitely after Christmas now.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=4117779&c=2

Pressure grows on GPs to ditch 0844 surgery numbers
08 Mar 08

<<
One in three GP practices in some parts of the country now use the controversial 0844 ‘local rate’ telephone numbers.

New data compiled from the NHS Choices website by campaigners against use of 0844 numbers is being used to increase the pressure on practices to move back to standard local numbers.

The figures show 807 practices across England currently use the 0844 ‘local rate’ numbers, which can cost up to 20p a minute from mobile phones.

The area of greatest use was in Calderdale PCT, where 33% of practices use the numbers, while at least one in five practices use the numbers in a further ten PCTs.

Some 19 PCTs did not have any practices using the numbers.

A Department of Health report into the use of 0844 numbers is expected to be published at the end of this month.

Current Department of Health guidance states that while GPs are not expected to break existing guidance, they should not enter into new ones which charge patients more than they would pay for a local call.

Campaigner David Hickson claimed that NHS GPs using the numbers could be in breach of their contract because of the revenue collected from patients – but said he was optimistic about the Department’s response.

‘I think when we look at the politics of this, Alan Johnson as a man hates this, and if it was entirely in his hands he’d be round every GP surgery tomorrow pulling them out,’ he said.

Last month the BMA warned practices using the numbers that they should ensure patients were advised of the cost of calling, and that the charges should be listed in practices’ information leaflets.

Top five PCTs using 0844 numbers

Calderdale PCT – 33%
North Lincolnshire PCT – 29%
Isle of Wight PCT – 26%
North Somerset PCT – 25%
Wakefield District PCT – 25%
>>

http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/3545/johnson_steps_up_pressure_on_0844_number...

<<
Johnson steps up pressure on 0844 numbers
11 Mar 2008

Health secretary Alan Johnson has stepped up the pressure on practices using 0844 telephone numbers as campaigners draw up a list of more than 800 surgeries with such numbers.

The health secretary, who is MP for Hull and Hessle West, criticised the use of 0844 numbers in his local paper as the Department of Health’s consultation on use of the numbers ends this month.

Practices have switched to 0844 numbers as part of schemes which provide them with more modern telecoms systems and the BMA claims that many practices using 084 numbers are often able to deal with their calls more efficiently and quickly, therefore costing patients less overall. However patients will normally pay 5p per minute when using such numbers compared to lower local call costs which may also be free as part of telephone call packages. The DH wants to see greater use of new 03 numbers which cost the same as a local geographic call number.

Earlier this month Mark Britnell, commissioning director, wrote to PCTs http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/Dearcollea... instructing them to issue an alert to practices over the investigation into 084 numbers.

He told PCTs that the investigation would conclude by the end of this month and the government would then decide if further action was necessary.

He added: “I would like to re-iterate the government’s position that patients

should not be expected to pay more than the equivalent of a local call, and ask you to consider what action would be necessary to ensure that this is achieved. This will be particularly relevant to primary care service providers who are considering contracting or re-contracting for the provision of an 084 number system.”

Johnson told the Hull Daily Mail “We don't want to have a service here where we tell GPs who are all privately employed how to run their businesses. But what we do is we send out guidance and the guidance we have recently sent out was very clear about not using these 084 numbers."

The current consultation is a result of an adjournment debate held in January on the use of 084 numbers in which health minister Ivan Lewis said that it was “entirely unacceptable” for patients to be charged more than the local rate for contacting their GP surgery. Graham Stuart MP told the House of Commons that as many as 1500 practices use 084 numbers.

Mr Johnson told the Hull Daily Mail: "We are having this consultation and the clear inference there is that if we have to take further measures, we will, because we want to get them to move across to these 03 numbers."

In the meantime campaigner David Hickson, who previously led a campaign to prevent companies making ‘silent’ telemarketing calls, has drawn up a list of 807 surgeries in England which use 084 numbers, compiling the information from the NHS Choices website.

He has made the list available to MPs and some local newspapers have used it to publicise the names of practices using 084 telephone numbers. Hickson’s lists shows Leeds PCT has the greatest number of practices using 0844 numbers, a total of 27, while Calderdale PCT has the greatest percentage of practices using 0844 numbers, a total of 33%.

Hickson believes that use of such numbers breaches clause 483 of the GMS contract which prohibits receipt of remuneration from patients and says Alan Johnson also backed that view in the House of Commons debate in November.

He told EHI Primary Care: “GPs must use the best technology and systems available to provide the best possible service to patients within their budget. Service improvements cannot however be used as an excuse for departing from the fundamental principle that NHS services are provided "free at the point of need".

Last month the BMA’s GP committee advised practices using 084 numbers that they need to publicise their use of such numbers and the costs involved on practice leaflets.

© 2008 E-HEALTH-MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
>>

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/article.html?in_article_id=432560&in_page_...

40p a minute to phone your doctor

James Tozer, Daily Mail
9 March 2008

<<
Patients are being charged up to 40p a minute to call their GP despite official guidance that family doctors should not use higher rate phone lines.

Around one in ten practices can now only be reached by using 0844 numbers.
They cost more than ordinary landlines, and doctors pocket money from every call.

Ministers have called on surgeries to switch back to normal-rate numbers. Despite personal intervention from Health Secretary Alan Johnson, more GPs are signing up to the system.

Although phone tariffs for calling 0844 numbers vary widely, typical charges are 5p a minute from a landline, compared with just over 3p a minute to ring a normal-rate number, rising to up to 40p a minute from a mobile phone.

No figures for the total income brought in by the scheme have been published, but based on a surcharge of 2p per minute, even if the average call lasted just 60 seconds it would be in the region of £4m a year.

The surcharge is paid directly to surgeries. GPs say they don't make a profit from the 0844 numbers because they spend the money on installing and operating the now phone systems to replace their antiquated systems. The move to higher rate phone lines comes at a time when GPs' salaries have increased by almost 60 per cent in four years to an average of £113,000 a year.

This week they agreed a new contract that will require them to open their surgeries for longer or take a pay cut - the deal came after the National Audit Office said the previous one struck in 2004 had been a bad deal for taxpayers.

The Department of Health wrote to all primary care trusts - which oversee local health budgets - this week saying there have been 'a number of concerns' about 0844 numbers.

It reiterated guidance from 2006 that practices should not be entering into new contracts to use them and should instead set up numbers beginning 03 which cost no more to call than ordinary, local numbers.

Yesterday, Mr Johnson went further, saying that while he couldn't force GPs to comply, 'if we have to take further measures, we will, because we want to get them to move across to 03 numbers'. His stance is backed by the communications watchdog Ofcom, which says public bodies should not use numbers beginning 08 unless they also offer conventional numbers as well.

The Department of Health is examining the issue and expects to announce later this month whether action will be taken.

One of the leading firms in the field, Network Europe Group, claims to have signed up 1,200 of the 10,000 GP practices in the UK and that calls are running at

17m a month

.

Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association, said: 'So much for the NHS being free at the point of need - surgeries shouldn't be forcing patients to use expensive phone lines.

'It's very confusing for elderly patients, and if you're calling from a mobile it can be quite costly as well.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, said: 'There are undoubted benefits to patients from these systems, and it would be a retrograde step to get rid of them.

'There is no doubt that these numbers provide a much better level of patient satisfaction and improved call-handling.'
>>

Nottinghamshire Local Medical Committee  

http://www.nottslmc.org.uk/

Date unknown, but must be recent

http://www.nottslmc.org.uk/Portals/2/Important%20announcement%20final%200844.pdf

Can't post the text at the moment as it is 'protected'

Author: someone called Alistair (Campbell??).

The lies continue.

I see that they promote a conference call service called health-exchange for NHS users using an 0844 5p a minute number.Which they claim is a local call. I quote

"each person pays for their leg of the call at BT's standard local call rate of 4.2 pence per minute + VAT "

http://www.networkeuropegroup.com/neg_telecom/health-exchange.html

idb wrote on Mar 19^th, 2008 at 1:38am:

The Heather Mills school of obfuscation, perhaps?

You have got to admire their utter contempt for the public/reader.  The quote that proved it to me is:

Quote:

They overlook how devious making cost-comparisons in 2008 using figures from 2003 proves them to be.

The fact that 0844 numbers charged at ½p, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p and 5p per minute (incl. VAT) are available but that NEG only uses the 5p/minute variety (and then quotes the ex-VAT price to make it appear less) and the fact that the telecoms industry has moved on in 5 years (BT's July 2004 abolition of the local/national call distinction being one of the most fundamental) are conveniently (and obviously deliberately) overlooked.