Quote:
Your above point is important and needs to be stressed.

For those that do decide to contact the DOH about the changeover from
rip-off 0870 to rip-off 0844, a useful aspect, helpfully provided by Ofcom,
is one I have previously mentioned - the inability or difficulty in
terminating calls to 0844 from overseas. Ofcom's "Calls to 0845 and 0870
numbers: review of retail price and numbering arrangements", which at
present can be found at
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/0845/0845.pdf (Ofcom has an annoying
habit of moving documents - this one wasn't where I had bookmarked it last
year), and contains at paragraph/annex E17 the following:

"In some cases there is limited access from abroad to UK 0844/0871 number
ranges. Whilst this is beyond Ofcom's powers to influence, it seems likely that
international access represents a very small proportion of calls to these numbers, particularly
in the case of NTS numbers used for internet access, since calls are typically long, and
international call rates tend to be expensive."

It really doesn't matter that the proportion of calls may be low - what matters is that there is no *guarantee* that a call will be terminated to a surgery from overseas whereas with the old arrangement of using geographic numbers, it is virtually certain that any given foreign carrier will terminate the call. In matters with potentially serious consequences from the inability to call, the telephone number used must be one that has the widest chance of being connected. Imagine what would happen if someone, in an undeveloped country and not speaking the language, had to grapple with a strange phone system that kept playing a message, in an odd language, that "calls to this number are not possible" all because the surgery and NEG scumbags are so greedy that the 3p/minute revenue overrides the ability of the poor individual trying to get some information on say a prescription or some other illness. In summary, because 0844 termination from overseas is sporadic it should not be used in potentially life/death, or at least serious illness situations.

David Colin-Thome (National Clinical Director for Primary Care) said on yesterday's You and Yours (listen here) that the reason they're banning 0870 is because they've had "valid feedback from the public."

What he really means is that more people are becoming aware of the scam. The fact that the GP's shouldn't have implemented this in the first place doesn't seem to matter.

When quizzed about what would happen if these numbers were banned, he sounded a bit nervous. I think it's gonna be deeply embarassing for the NHS when it gets out.

Would Cruz who posted on page 1. of this thread please be good enough to explain just how the duration of the call to the doctor is halved by using an 0870 number...Does the doctor have more staff to deal with the patient's queries or do they speak twice as fast.Does he/she mean that the time to connect to the number is shortened as there is no engaged signal but is put in a queue at one's own expense.Does Cruz by any chance have any connection with NEG?

There could actually be a revenue share.
We have one client using 0845 for its helpline where the modest charge funds the system necessary for the fairly complex call handling (not merely to a single location, but switched to different volunteers' homes), which could not yet be done on geographic numbers without costing the charity much money. That is money for kit and specialist programming and control. But I am working on this one! Oh and it is only available to callers in the evenings. This charge also covers the 0800 costs of the volunteers logging in and so on.
Another client receives a small inpayment from its 0845 calls.
Just a thought.

Quote:

You need to point out that allowing 0844 numbers creates a loophole. Some 0844 numbers actually cost msot than 0870 numbers at certain times of day.

I do not expect there are any statistics about calls to doctors from abroad. However, I personally witnessed such a call when during a consultation with a doctor a patient called in from Nigeria for some advice. There are also regular press reports of road traffic accidents abroad where British people are injured.

Legal action against doctors with telephone numbers inaccessible from certain locations abroad and who thereby cause harm to patients may exercise some legal brains but they are unlikely to be readers/contributors to this Forum.

Hi Reggie – reply #20

0870, 0845 and 0844 numbers (and many more) are revenue sharing numbers.   All of this shared revenue is provided by the caller; who receives this revenue is determined by the contractual arrangements between the various parties.  In the case of surgeries, doctors may not receive this revenue directly in cash, but they nonetheless receive it in kind.

Hi lompos

The answer is yes.  Listen to the link privided by Dave in reply #17 above.