The Department of Health has taken sooooooooooo long to get on with its consultation on banning 084 numbers that a Midlands PCT has decided to go ahead and take action to get rid of 084 numbers now.     This item in the  Birmingham Mail today reports    Health trust helps patients save money with campaign on 084 telephone numbers


"With the assistance of the PCT, 22 of its GPs have abandoned revenue sharing 0845 numbers in favour of 0345 numbers ......"  

and

“This sets a fine example to other PCTs and demonstrates that the problems in addressing this issue can be overcome.”

The whole story is at ;---

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2009/07/04/health-trust-helps...

The full text of the report is as follows :---

Health trust helps patients save money with campaign on 084 telephone numbers

A BIRMINGHAM health trust is helping save patients cash by leading the way on eliminating expensive 084 phone numbers to GP surgeries.

Campaigners have been fighting against the revenue-sharing numbers, which the Department of Health has also condemned as they cost a higher fee of 5p a minute.

Birmingham-born campaigner David Hickson, who previously led a rally call to stop companies making “silent” telemarketing calls, praised Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust (PCT) for taking action to change the pricey system.

“Whilst the Health Minister contemplates a delayed response to the recent consultation on a proposed ban on use of revenue sharing 084 numbers in the NHS, Heart of Birmingham PCT has been getting on with the job,” Mr Hickson said.

“With the assistance of the PCT, 22 of its GPs have abandoned revenue sharing 0845 numbers in favour of 0345 numbers, which must be charged in the same way as calls to local numbers and may not be subject to revenue sharing.

“This sets a fine example to other PCTs and demonstrates that the problems in addressing this issue can be overcome.”

There is strong public opinion on the expensive call system and an internet petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ban the use of revenue sharing numbers attracted more than 26,000 signatures.

Mr Hickson is heading a campaign as he claims the 084 numbers “exploit” patients.

The 0844 and 0845 non-geographical numbers were introduced to help surgeries deal with more calls on more modern telecom systems, but there was an extra cost to patients when calling doctors for an appointment on these numbers as they paid more than a local rate call to offset the cost of equipment used.

These numbers allow patients to wait in a call queue rather than having to repeatedly hang up and redial, choose from a menu of options and be automatically directed to the most appropriate place without having to dial another number and also book appointments or order repeat prescriptions via an automated system.



(It should be noted that references to a certain Mr Hickson being the leader of any campaign are entirely assumptions made by the newspaper).

Dave wrote on Jul 5^th, 2009 at 10:56am:


This practice is under South Birmingham PCT so perhaps the move away from 084 numbers by GPs is spreading from the Heart of Birmingham to adjacent areas.

Would this practice and the others mentioned be candidates for our Hall of Fame?

Dave wrote on Jul 5^th, 2009 at 9:45pm:


The list of 0845-using GPs on the NHS.Patient website shows 33 for Heart of Birmingham PCT. This was obtained from NHS Choices some time ago.

A review of the current NHS Choices list does not identify any that have changed, however a new health centre (run by Care UK) has opened in Greet with a 0345 number.

There are no 0345 numbers shown in the latest guide published by the PCT.

If anyone is very interested in this sort of detailed information, which is not to be found in the public domain, they could consider making a Freedom of Information request! One might have imagined that this could have been of interest to a local journalist. Local people who have seen the news story may want to follow this up with the PCT.

NEG, in their submission, have not considered the possibility of GPs offering geographic numbers alongside their 084 numbers as Northumberland have done:---    

"Council RESOLVED that:

(b)      Both the 0845 and 01670 numbers be included on the Council’s website and on any future literature with immediate effect together with a link to an explanation of the charging policy. "

This is what the Dept of Health could do as a result of its recent Consultation on the banning of 084 numbers in the NHS as an interim step.

All GPs currently using 084 numbers should be required to reveal their 01/02 numbers with immediate effect and publish them alongside their 084 numbers until their current supplier contracts expire.    This would give the choice to all their patients who could choose which number they would prefer to use.

This is a principle which the present Government has introduced into the NHS and a principle that it is enthusiastically promoting.    What an ideal solution!    Totally on message with the Governments ideas and patient choice being exercised within the NHS.    This was proposed during the Consultation so we expect that it has been given serious consideration in the options placed before the Minister.   Northumberland Council have demonstrated that issuing geographic numbers alongside 084 numbers is a feasible practical and realistic option.

Anyone got any update on what is happening and when we are likely to get a response from the DoH?

It is pretty mind blowing that there can be such a delay.

What happens when they have to consider something mildly difficult?

loddon wrote on Aug 7^th, 2009 at 8:03pm:

A decision to do nothing could easily be covered in a response to the consultation. An announcement, "We are going to do nothing" or "We will look at this again in a year's time" does not seem that likely. That is not to say that we will achieve all that we have sought, the exclusion of NHS Direct has already been announced.

In guessing on the likely date for an announcement of a popular move, one may be drawn to the Labour Party Conference which starts on Monday 27 September. The actual date of Andy Burnham's speech is not yet published. If Mike O'Brien is to have the honour of making the announcement, then it would be earlier.

Back in March, there was a Government consultation paper and, from the tone of it, it made it sound like the use of 0844 (etc) numbers - at least in the public sector, such as Health - was going to be banned.

The consultation ended in March and feedback was promised "within a month".

I have heard nothing since and was wondering if anyone had learned what the result was.

We have taken legal advice and we are basically stuck with the contracts that some of our GP practices have signed. However, if we knew that the Govt had banned the numbers, it would give us a stronger negotiating position with the provider.

Many thanks.

Andrew_Weight wrote on Aug 27^th, 2009 at 2:38pm:


The answer to this was given in post #114 above, in a situation report.    We await the announcement and publication of the government response some time in September.