Allan_Johns wrote on Aug 8
th, 2008 at 12:20pm:
Having read it, "What a scam!" goes nowhere near my original reaction.
Indeed. They get a new telephone system and the patient subsidises it. This should come from the practice's budget, paid for by the taxpayer. It must be stressed that the objection is not to the telephone system, but to its use of 0844 revenue sharing numbers. It should use either a conventional geographical (01/02) number or 03 "UK-wide" non-geographical number.
The only suggestion I can give is as per jgxenite's. The surgeries we have alternatives for appear to have a block of direct dialling in numbers for individual extensions and the main menu is usually the first in the sequence and beginning 0. So if you see a list of direct numbers for members of staff, remember one of them and when you get home, try changing the last digit to 0 or a multiple thereof.