Quote:


Unfortunately it will not be possible to find the geographical number.

Your GP signed up with a company called NEG who provided a new telephone system for the surgery in exchange for part of the revenue generated by the 0844 calls to the surgery.  This in effect means that the patients phoning the surgery are financing the practice's new telephone system.

There have been numerous threads on the forum about this practice which clearly contradicts the fundamental principle of the NHS that the service should be free at the point of use. GPs are self employed business people who are supposed to finance their practices from the income they receive from the local Primary Care Trust without any contribution from patients. As has been reported in the press, their income has increased substantially in recent years, it is therefore even more shameful that they should look to their patients to finance a new telephone exchange. Your GP is not on the breadline, he/she may well earn in the £100,000 p.a. bracket - compare this with the income of elderly patients on low pensions.

Calls to 0844 numbers from a BT landline cost 5p/min + a 3p set-up charge. From payphones and mobiles they cost considerably more. 0844 numbers cannot generally be dialled from abroad, so if you or other doctors have cause to contact your GP while you are on holiday/business abroad the chances are that they will not be able to do so.

The only thing you can do is complain to the GP pointing out what I tried to set out above. There are probably standard letters of complaint in previous threads, come back if you wish to pursue this.

I totally agree, having an 0844 number for an NHS service is disgraceful, as you say the doctors earn a lot of money. I feel it is really sad that disabled and elderly people that cannot get to the surgey to make an appointment and have to rely on the phone are charged this extortionate fate just to make an appointment. Also they keep you hanging on the line, i have phoned before and been told i was 19th in line. Sometimes the receptionists leave the phone for ages before they answer, which means you are still paying for the call even though they havent answered. I am disgusted by this, is there anything else that can be done about it?

19th in the queue?  Good grief.

My surgery (in a village of 4000 people but which covers surrounding villages and hamlets too) has 4 doctors and its own pharmacy (for those who can't get to the Chemist's shop 300 yards away).

They haven't (yet) been duped and, trying to call at 8.30am for an appointment often means you get the engaged tone (i.e. no charge) but pressing the LNR button a few times in the next 3, 4, 5 or 10 minutes always gets a reply within seconds.  Why is there a need to have a queueing system?

Sorry, I forgot. (in the form of a 'free' telephone system of course, so it's deniable).

Anyone want to be a Lord?

lompos wrote on Jan 26^th, 2007 at 4:38pm:

See my post here.