GPs still using premium rate 0844 numbers for appointments despite ban

Local GPs are flouting premium rate 0844 number ban

Some GPs are still making patients pay just to call for an appointment – despite the practice being banned three years ago.

The Department of Health has outlawed the use of premium rate 0844 numbers for NHS services but some local surgeries are still using them.

Yorkshire Street Surgery and The Group Practice, Littleborough use the numbers.

Calling a family doctor on an 0844 line costs up to 41p a minute from a mobile and 5p a minute plus a 13p set-up fee from a BT landline.

Most surgeries using such lines take a slice of the call charges run up by patients, which generally range from 2p-7p a minute. This means patients are effectively subsidising their family doctors.

Practice Manager at Yorkshire Street Surgery, Diane Jones appears to be unaware that official regulations were issued in April 2010 ruling that NHS bodies, including GPs, should not charge more for a call than the cost of dialling a local number, she said: “We have seen the paperwork that has come out but have not been warned to stop using the number. We won’t be changing it now because Ofcom hasn’t told us to stop.”

Practice Manager at The Group Practice, Littleborough, said: “We are aware of the new warnings and are looking into changing our number.”

David Hickson, founder of the Fair Telecoms Campaign, which fights for consumer rights, said: "The NHS is funded by taxation.

"It is unacceptable that GPs take an additional tax on our calls. That tax by telephone is unacceptable.

"The fundamental principles of our NHS do not permit providers to fund services at the expense of patients."

Primary care trusts, the local NHS bodies which were abolished at the end of March, were supposed to enforce GP contracts but were accused of doing nothing to prevent surgeries from using the numbers.

Now NHS England is in charge of enforcing GP contracts and is taking a tougher stance with GPs.

Customers of Virgin Mobile are charged 41p a minute to call an 0844 number while the figure is 40p with Orange and T-Mobile. A ten-minute call, which includes being put on hold, could cost as much as £4.10.