Campaign to say ‘no to 084’ (From Gazette)
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Campaign to say ‘no to 084’
3:00pm Tuesday 10th February 2009 in
A PARISH council is urging patients to have their say on the use of 084 numbers at doctors’ surgeries.
Kelvedon Parish Council raised concerns last year when the new numbers were introduced at Kelvedon Surgery, in High Street, in place of the cheaper local code 01376.
Barbara Lord, practice manager, said the number improved service at no extra cost.
The Department of Health has now launched a public consultation on the issue.
Graham Dossett, who campaigned for the parish council on the issue, said: “The council would encourage people to take a few minutes to look at the stuff the Department of Health has published and take less than a minute to tick the boxes and have their say.”
The consultation information is available via the DoH website.
The department document states: “We wish to find out how valuable people think the enhanced functions provided by 084 numbers are, and how they might otherwise be provided without patients having to pay more than a local call rate for them.”
The consultation closes on March 31.
Comments(5)
Red Tape
says...
3:25pm Tue 10 Feb 09
NHS.Patient
says...
3:37pm Tue 10 Feb 09
This is also an e-petition to the Prime Minister on this same subject at http://petitions.num
ber10.gov.uk/Healtht
elephone/.
The consultation may seem unnecessary when 03xx numbers can now be used to provide the same extra features with no extra cost to the caller, but the government needs to see strong public support to help press through the ban.
Colchester_Hospital_Head_of_Communications
says...
4:54pm Tue 10 Feb 09
From 16 January 2009 calls to numbers starting with 0845 and 0870 are free from a British Telecom (BT) landline at certain times. BT are the only company to not charge for these calls, so using your BT landline could save you money.
Read more about calls to 0845 numbers are now free with BT.
http://www.productsa
ndservices.bt.com/co
nsumerProducts/displ
ayTopic.do?topicId=2
5502
Feisty CBC
says...
10:12am Wed 11 Feb 09
This site also gives alternative landline (some freefone) numbers for companies using these rip off numbers.
drichard
says...
11:10am Wed 11 Feb 09
_Head_of_Communicati
ons",
that is all well and good if you are with BT and they are using 0845/0870 and you call at the right time of day (Between 6pm and 8am for me - is the surgery open then - NO).
Mill road surgery uses 0844 so that's 2 fingers to everyone - 0844 is not provided by BT and is even more expensive than 0845. It is not covered by the "free" 0845/0870 offer from BT.
I complained to Bob Russell who extracted responses from Paul Zollinger-read and only then did the surgery put a note explaining the change in the parish magazine.
Don't forget, the surgery gets a cut from every call made to that number. Their overseas number is now an 0870 one so you're doubly s*****d there.
Check the facts and complain to your MP, parish councellor, PCT and GP Practice. If enough noise is made, they'll be wondering if it's worth the hassle.
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