Don’t be disheartened dorf. I met two people over the weekend who commented about the doctors scam – one from the Daily Mail and one from You and Yours.  The word is definitely spreading.

A well drafted and clear message pud. No doubt you have sent an copy to all and sundry.   Below is a list of organisations that I have sent a similar email, it may be of use to other member.

Here is my list of contacts that may be of use to members complaining about the 0870 and 0844 scam by some doctors surgeries.  And about 087x and 084x numbers in general.

Dan.Saladino@bbc.co.uk (You and Yours producer)
Melanie.Abbott@bbc.co.uk (You and Yours reporter)

David.Colin-Thome@dh.gsi.gov.uk (Director of Primary Care NHS)
dhmail@dh.gsi.gov.uk      (Dept of Health – Address it to the Minister)
ReidJ@parliament.uk (John Reid - Minister in DH)
HuttonJ@parliament.uk (John Hutton - Minister in Dept of Health)

Your own MP  (very important in an election year)

S.Poulter@DailyMail.co.uk  Sean Poulter reporter
Nic.Fleming@Telegraph.co.uk  Nic Fleming reporter

Headquarters National Audit Office  
Sir John Bourn
157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SP
Telephone +44 (0)20 7798 7000
Fax +44 (0)20 7798 7070
enquiries@nao.gsi.gov.uk (mark email for the attention of Sir John Bourn)

If you don’t think The Department of Health or Ofcom have spent your money wisely or the operations of those bodies (and any other public body) is found wanting, you can ask the audit office to investigate.

And as it is near an election:

Conservatives.
Phone 020 7222 9000
Fax 020 7222 1135
Leader@Conservatives.com

UKIP
Phone 0800 587 6587
Fax 0121 333 1520
webmail@ukip.org

Labour
Phone 08705 900 200
info@new.labour.org.uk

Lib Dem
Phone 020 7222 7999
Fax 020 7799 2170
info@Libdems.org.uk

From juby: Don't forget The General Medical Council
Motto "Protecting Patients, Guiding Doctors"
2nd Floor, 350 Euston Rd, NW1 3JN
rspringer@gmc-uk.org
Standards Section.
gmc@gmc-uk.org

Correction: re my reply  above
"Nic Fleming" only has one “m”

Quote:

Very enlightening.

The political party which has allowed this to spiral out of control has an 0870 number!

Who mentioned stealth taxes?

Don't forget The General Medical Council

Motto "Protecting Patients, Guiding Doctors"

2nd Floor, 350 Euston Rd, NW1 3JN

rspringer@gmc-uk.org

Standards Section.

gmc@gmc-uk.org

I made a request to the local NHS Primary Care Trust under the FOI Act asking them to disclose the number they are using for contacting the GP who recently changed his number to 0870.

To my surprise they said that they, too, are using the 0870 number.

Double whammy.  NEG are also profiting from internal NHS calls!

Has anyone tried to obtain a GP's geographic number directly from the GP under the FOI Act and if so with what result?

Quote:
As expected to be honest. 0844 is here to stay. The DOH is probably afraid of taking action against NEG rip-off merchants in case it ends up being subject to litigation due to contract termination or something similar. It also probably still believes that these 'local' calls cost more or less the same as any true call to someone in the same area. The response simply demonstrated the standard of public servants within the UK. The scams will continue until someone with enough clout exposes the rip-off. Ofcom could of course do this, but it looks like it won't - after all, when was the last time it put customers' interests first?

The following email was sent today to the DOH, John Hutton, the conservative and libdem health spokesmen, the gmc, the bbc and the telegraph:

There have been several inaccuracies and ambiguities in Health Minister John Hutton's announcement on 24 February 2005 entitled "National and Premium Rate Phone Numbers Banned From April", as reported by the Department of Health in their press release 2005/0074 on the same day:

1.

BT no longer make a distinction between local calls and national calls, therefore the use of the term 'national rate number' was incorrect. 'National rate' numbers do not exist any more.

2.

Some GPs have changed their telephone numbers to numbers starting with 0870. These numbers are 'premium rate' according to BT's terminology and cost 7.5 p/min from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays.

ref: Pricing Information Service 

3.

The statement that "Premium rate telephone numbers start with the digits 09'" was misleading as other numbers not starting with 09 may also be premium rate, if premium rate means that they are more expensive than calls to normal geographic numbers starting with 01 or 02. 

4.

According to John Hutton's announcement GPs will be allowed to use numbers starting with 0844.   It was misleading of John Hutton to say that these are 'guaranteed low rate', as they cost 5 p/min at all times.  This compares with the cost of calling normal geographic numbers starting with 01 or 02 of 3 p/min (Bt Option 1) down to 0 p/min (BT Option 3 and others), with a whole range of other providers offering UK calls at 1 p/min. 

The term 'guaranteed' implies that only the cost of these calls can be known with certainty which of course is not the case as all call charges, whether they are high or low, are 'guaranteed' by the service providers such as BT.

5.

In the 'Notes to Editors' at the end of the press release it is stated that 'GP practices currently using national rate telephone lines will be expected to change these to ‘lo-call’ numbers'.  It was unfortunate to use the term 'lo-call', as this does not mean 'low cost" if numbers starting with 0844 are included.

6.

There was no mention in John Hutton's statement of the cost of calls to 0844 numbers from payphones which people who cannot afford their own phone lines are forced to use and which cost several times more than calls to numbers starting with 01 or 02. 

I strongly recommend that the above inaccuracies, ambiguities and omissions are corrected and clarified in a further press release and also that the possible use of 0844 telephone numbers by GPs after April is reviewed.

e-mail reply just received:



'lo-call' rate numbers ?

'a guaranteed low call charge' ?

'a guaranteed low rate call' ?

Is there nobody in government who can see through NEG's spin?

My reply: