5:59pm Friday 21st March 2008
By Ryan McCarthy
A parish council is writing to its MP to outline concerns over a doctors surgery using an 0844 telephone number.
Kelvedon Parish Council has raised concerns that Kelvedon Surgery, in High Street, has changed its number from 01376 to 0844.
But the practice manager said the number has improved service at no extra cost.
The parish council has taken up the fight to try and return the number to 01376 as members feel it is "not appropriate", and they will be writing to Braintree MP Brooks Newmark to outline their case.
A parish council spokesman said the council has got hold of a letter from former health minister Lord Warner, which asked NHS Primary Care Trusts to advise surgeries against using such numbers.
Practice manager Barbara Lord said the surgery switched from 01376 to 0844 after first switching to 0845.
She said 0845 was outlawed by the Department of Health, but there are no restrictions on using 0844, and that not only does it not cost more to call but it provides a better service.
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