http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/4025/hopsitals'_084_numbers_makes_trust_%C2%A380000

Hopsitals' 084 numbers makes trust £80,000
05 Aug 2008

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GP practices and hospitals may face increased pressure over use of 084 telephone numbers following a revelation from a hospital trust that it has made more than £80,000 from use of a 0844 telephone number over the last two years.

The Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust was forced to publish its income from the revenue-sharing telephone number following a Freedom of information request made by its local newspaper.

NHS organisations including GP practices that use 0844 numbers have been criticised by MPs and other campaigners for making money from NHS patients. The government launched an evidence gathering exercise into use of the numbers in primary care in March but has yet to publish the results of its investigations.

The income made by the Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust has been condemned as “indefensible” by the Patient’s Association which said that hospitals should not be allowed to make money from patients’ telephone calls.

More than 800 GP practices in England use 0844 numbers as well as 15 hospital trusts which use either 0844 or 0845 numbers. NHS Direct also uses a premium rate 0845 number and last week told EHI Primary Care that it had no plans to switch to a standard rate 03 number reserved for its use.

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust replaced its standard rate dialling codes with an O844 number in May 2006. The change means the trusts now receive 0.0275p for every ten-second call and patients pay 5p a minute from a landline and more from a mobile telephone.

The trust told the Wakefield Express newspaper that it had generated “in the region of £82,000” since the introduction of the numbers for Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals.

However in a statement issued to E-Health Insider the trust defended the use of the numbers and said it had no plans to change its telephone number although it would continue to monitor national policy and guidance and consider changes in accordance with that guidance.

Tony Waite, acting chief executive at the trust, said: “In common with other organisations across the country, we introduced our 0844 number to better manage the large volume of calls we receive from patients and visitors in a quicker and more efficient way.

“Our four hospitals serve a population of more than half a million people and the benefit of having our current system means that we not only have the capacity to take a large number of calls at any one time, but callers only have one number to remember when contacting any of our hospitals.”

Waite said the trust recognised that a direct dial number was more convenient for some patients and had publicised direct dial numbers for its wards and departments to local GPs and to patients.

He added: “We receive 0.0275p for a ten second call by the network provider of the 0844 number. This money has been reinvested into clinical services at our trust to ensure that we deliver high quality care to our patients. We also continue to make improvements to the 0844 telephone service. This includes introducing an automated system, which means that callers can be put through more quickly to the right ward or department. We expect this to be in place by the end of the year.”
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One which appears to have been missed of the list is Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust. This is a mental health trust, rather than an acute (hospital) trust.

How ironic - one part of Leicester's health service is taking on new 08 numbers, whilst another is at least discouragng them:

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132407&command=displayC...
Quote:

Dave wrote on Sep 6^th, 2008 at 3:35pm:

So Mr Sanders is content to justify NHS patients paying this sum towards the cost of obtaining NHS treatment!

One assumes that there is some exaggeration in the way in which this figure has been calculated. Furthermore, the idea of having to buy GPs out of their contracts with a single penalty payment does not represent the most sensible way of approaching a proper resolution to this problem.

NGMsGhost wrote on Sep 6^th, 2008 at 4:47pm:

It seems that GPs won't do anything and that patients will have to continue to be charged for NHS services.

Of course, assuming GPs consider that they were "misold" the systems, they are in a much stronger position to take their providers to court than patients are to take the GPs to court who have broken their contracts which ban charging patients.

If we are considering penalties, we must note the role of the Department of Health and the PCTs who were happy to encourage and promote use of Surgery Line funded as it is out of the foolish and mistaken belief that 0844 numbers offered a "guaranteed low rate".

We must also consider those patients who are very happy to pay a little extra for a telephone service that is better than that available previously. One understands that in some surgeries their views contributed to the decision to adopt the 0844 number. Under the present arrangements covering co-payments, one could argue that they should be denied all NHS treatment from the GP.

I can understand the "punish those who are to blame" approach, and there is undoubtedly much blame that can be assigned. This should not be entirely forgotten, however I do not however see it as providing the most effective foundation for a way forward from where we are now.

Why do they not merely have an announcement on the old 0844 number telling patients to call the geographic phone number as this will be cheaper for them.  That is what the BBC has done with its 0870 numbers.

You will note that when they closed down the geographic numbers in favour of the 0844 numbers the telco would of course had no problem with providing such announcement to call the new number IMMEDIATELY.

It seems to me the scammers actually want to keep the revenue sharing number going for as long as possible.