Following the announcement from the Secretary of State for Health yesterday, we are now waiting to hear what number has been selected for telephone contact with this service.

It is understood that the service will be managed on a regional or area basis, but a single contact telephone number will be used - i.e. a non-geographic number.

It is possible that it will be a 0800 number, however on the face of it, this would require a sizable act of generosity on the part of the mobile telcos, if sufferers calling from mobiles were not to also suffer premium charges. It is understood that the mobile operators were persuaded to waive their charges on calls to the temporary recorded information number, 0800 1 513 513, presently in use, but this was done after the number had been announced. Calls to the new number will be numerous and probably longer, as they will involve instant diagnosis and referral for treatment. If, as is likely, the mobile operators were to only agree to waive their charges on payment of a sum of money, then this would set a precedent for the DWP and other public service use of 0800 numbers for services that do not fall within the strict definition of a "helpline", and so do not qualify for charge waiver under the present arrangement, brokered by the THA.

The only other feasible option is a 03 number - trust me, 084 is now dead for high profile numbers. We all know that this is fair, as callers will not pay more than the cost (if any) of a call to a 01/02 number. Many people are however unaware of this and will undoubtedly be suspicious. If a 03 number is chosen, I believe that we should do all we can to help with the positive publicity and reassurance that will be needed. This could be a great opportunity to put some weight behind 03 as an acceptable and highly desirable route for all public services to follow.

We await an announcement in the next day or so!

sherbert wrote on Jul 21^st, 2009 at 2:51pm:

That is a matter for the health departments of the respective governments. If they choose to set up equivalent services, they could adopt the same number if they wish, as presently happens with NHS Direct - Wales, a separate service with the same number as England.

The BBC has announced "lunchtime today" for the launch, and as quoted above, that it will be 0800.

The BBC stands by this, but I have been unable to obtain confirmation from anywhere else.

If it is indeed to be 0800, then surely the mobile situation will have been dealt with. The question will be, "at what cost"? This is not a helpline, but a "transactional service", and therefore does not meet the criteria for waiver of charges by the mobile operators.

The DWP agencies will be interested to know the answer to this question, so that they can work out how much they will need to pay for the same arrangement.

Web site...
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalass...

Telephone numbers....


National Pandemic Flu Service

 0800 1 513 513


England

Tel: 0800 1 513 100
Minicom: 0800 1 513 200


Northern Ireland
0800 0514 142
(Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)

Scotland

NHS 24: 08454 24 24 24

Wales

NHS Direct Wales:
0845 46 47

Dave wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2009 at 6:15pm:

After confirming earlier that O2 and Orange waive their charges, some further information has come to light on this.

Flu hotline calls will cost Vodafone customers up to 20p a minute

Have the other major providers waived their charges on a goodwill basis, whilst Vodafone refused?
Alternatively, were they paid off? (this now seems less likely, as it would only make sense to do this in order to offer a guarantee of free calls)
What about the other providers - Virgin Mobile, BT, Tesco etc. ?

I continue to hope that the media will get to the bottom of this swiftly, whilst the story is still hot, but we may have to wait.

It has been mentioned previously on this forum that an advert for the recorded information line 0800 1 513 513 quoted that it is "free from UK landlines and most mobiles". When a concerned citizen calls the number, they just want to know whether it is free for them to call or not.

When will organisations like the DH learn that "freephone" does not mean it's the best choice number. Freephone only has an advantage for those calling from landlines at times where they are charged for calls (ie when they don't have inclusive calls at the time of calling) or for those calling from BT Payphones. For all others, there is a disadvantage (in the case of mobile callers) or no difference (in the case of landline users with inclusive calls).

They throw a higher level of tax payers' money with all calls irrespective of whether there is a positive, negative or neutral benefit to callers. If the DH were to take a similar approach to providing treatment, then it would be like handing out Tamiflu or Relenza to all citizens for them to take, regardless of whether they have the virus or not. This would be bad for the treatment programme as a whole, as only those who show signs of the virus should take it. If too many people start taking anti-virals as a precaution, it could raise the risk of the virus developing resistance, reducing the drugs' effectiveness.

The cost to the taxpayer will be greater for a 0800 number than for a 03 number. Why administer this extra charge to all?

If they wanted to provide a 0800 number for the benefit of landline callers, then this should have been a secondary alternative to a 03 (or 01/02) number. Crucially, 03 would have provided a neutral charge for all.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jul 24^th, 2009 at 1:08pm:

This number has been used before, so perhaps it is one that Nottingham University Hospitals issue at times such as this when there is a problem. They have an agreement with NHS Direct that its staff take calls on whatever the number has been issued for rather than taking the calls themselves in their own hospital (office).

An anonymous visitor has submitted alternative 01635 numbers for the swine flu 0800 numbers. I am concerned about the authenticity of these numbers. Whilst they all answer as per the 0800 numbers, the 01635 774 block they are all on is allocated to QX Telecom Limited, so I wonder if someone has created these numbers and directed them to the 0800s. 

There is another number in this range, 01635 774800 which is for 0800 118 Free (0800 118 3733). QX provides a geographical dial through number 01635 774 305 for freephone numbers.

Maybe someone earns commission for calls to these numbers and that's why they've done it. I'm not happy about this and am considering removing these numbers for this reason.

Perhaps this person can identify themselves and let us know where these numbers have come from.