084 number costs some BT callers 13p a minute
A HEALTH centre is being accused of charging patients premium rates to call its phone number.
Patients using the Ongar Health Centre have complained they are being charged more than the cost of a standard call when calling the surgery.
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Phone showing 084 numbers
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Phone showing 084 numbers
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Phone showing 084 numbers
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Phone showing 084 numbers
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Phone showing 084 numbers
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RING THE CHANGES: Health centre senior partner Dr Hugh Taylor says the calls are at a good rate if you are on a BT land line
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CALLS: Ongar Health Centre
The Banson's Lane surgery still uses an 084 number, despite the government banning the use of premium phone rates for people contacting the NHS in 2009.
It has, however, emerged people on certain call packages are still being charged extra to call the centre.
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David Welford, 66, from Kettlebury Way, is on a 'free' call package with BT, which means he has to pay up to 13p a minute – plus a connection charge of 12.5p – to call the surgery instead of the standard 5p a minute.
"If it was a local 01277 number we would not have to pay for the call," Mr Welford said.
"I always walk down to the doctors to make an appointment now, because otherwise it costs several pounds to make an appointment."
Another patient, who did not wish to be named, said he had been charged £4.22 in calls to the centre this month alone, when, under his call package, they should have been free.
He said: "It is not on. It is breaking the regulations to have anything more than the cost of a standard call."
However, Doctor Hugh Taylor, a senior partner at the surgery, said patients were being "penalised" by their phone providers, not the surgery.
"The difficulty is that people who sign up with alternative contracts get penalised by their phone companies for phoning an 084 number, when they should not be," he said.
"We are charging a good rate for people who are on a fixed BT land line."
Dr Taylor, who has practised at the surgery for 29 years, said he sympathised with people who are being charged a premium rate to phone the surgery, but said the 084 number could not be changed to a local number.
He added: "The reason we use an 084 number is because a standard BT line cannot stack calls.
"This would be a real problem because, as an organisation with 10,000 patients, they would constantly get an engaged tone because they can't be held in a queue."
Dr Taylor discussed the issue at a meeting on Monday and said the surgery will be looking to make "changes and improvements" to the phone service in the future.
A spokesman for BT was unavailable for comment.
Comments
by Dave0870
Friday, June 24 2011, 9:13PM
“Dr Taylor states that patients are being "penalised" by their phone companies!?
What is he on about? Retailers that sell products tend to pass on their wholesale cost to customers. Things that cost more at a wholesale level also cost more at retail level. Or does he not understand this principle?
And then he goes on to pass comment on the amount BT charges patients to call. We have moved on from BT being the only provider, but yet there are still those who view telecommunications about being BT with "the other providers" tagged on the side.
The point about free market telecommunications, where callers and receivers have choice of provider is that it is for each to make their own decisions. Dr Taylor clings to the outdated regulations which apply to BT and mean that its charges for 0844 numbers are abnormally low. He wishes to portray them as if they were the norm.
I hope that the regulator, Ofcom, will redress the balance, so that users of these numbers will have no where to hide. The recent consultation on this appeared very promising.
Twitter: @FairTelecoms”
by NHSPatient
Friday, June 24 2011, 2:59PM
“Apologies for the bad link in the previous comment.
A map showing all the NHS GPs in Essex with 084 numbers is found at the address with the following parts:
tiny.
cc/
084GPsEssex”
by NHSPatient
Friday, June 24 2011, 12:11PM
“Dr Taylor fails to understand his responsibilities under his NHS contract.
He is also deluded if he thinks that "we are charging a good rate ...", because neither the practice nor its agents have any control over the cost of calling the revenue sharing number that has been chosen, from any type of line. GPs do not provide telephone service to their patients and set the charges; they can however benefit from charges imposed by those who do.
This practice benefits from a subsidy of around 5p per minute on every call to the 084 number. Telephone companies, including BT, pass this cost on to callers, often with an additional charge of their own. BT adds a 12.5p call setup fee, others are able to add their own charge to the pence per minute rate - the worst case is a total of 41p per minute charged by T-Mobile, where a call to a geographic number would be free.
All NHS GPs receive funding (from our taxes) to enable them to provide NHS services without charge to the patient. It is their responsibility to ensure that this is spent wisely, as the practice retains any surplus.
If Dr Taylor thinks that telephone companies should help him pay for his choice of a very expensive telephone system out of their general income, rather than on calls to his number, he is entitled to his view. It is however ridiculous to suggest that they are "penalising" callers by passing on the cost they incur in providing him with a subsidy. BT can only pass on this cost (with the addition of a call setup fee), whereas its standard contract provides calls to geographic numbers at no charge during the period when the customer uses their telephone.
The Banson's Lane surgery operates under a contract with the NHS which states that it may not use a telephone number where callers "pay more to make relevant calls to the practice than they would to make equivalent calls to a geographical number". This relates to what patients actually pay, not to what Dr Taylor thinks that telephone companies should charge.
The advanced, and expensive, stacking system which Dr Taylor suggests that the surgery needs can be deployed on any "non-geographic" number. (A system on any type of number can stack a limited, if very large, number of calls). The surgery has chosen a 084 number because this means that the stacking feature and other parts of it system enables this to be paid for by callers, rather than the practice.
Under the terms of his NHS contract, Dr Taylor is required to arrange a switch to a 03 "geographic rate" non-geographic number. Talk Talk, his telephone service provider, will allow such a switch at any time; only the second digit of the number needs to change - 0344 477 1777 is reserved for the practice to allow such a switch.
Calls to 03 numbers, from any line under any type of contract, are guaranteed to cost no more than an equivalent call to a geographic number. Revenue sharing is prohibited, so an a 03 number the practice telephone system would have to be paid for by the practice, not its patients - THAT IS HOW THE NHS WORKS.
There is lots more on this topic on my "NHSPatient" blog.
A map of all the NHS GPs in Essex with 084 numbers is found at this link - http://tinyurl.com/6x2au2f”