GP practice asks if it should drop 0844 number

A GP practice in Worcester is asking patients whether or not it should keep its 0844 telephone number.

Ombersley Medical Centre is running a poll to decide whether or not they keep the 5p per minute contact number. All 4,070 patients are able to participate when they come into the surgery, and the poll has been promoted in the centre’s newsletter.

Practice manager, Debbie Weston, told Worcester News: “It’s a much better service as it is and the telephone system stops people having to wait. There are no queues. I think people realise that to charge one extra pence per minute is not that bad.”

To date, only four patients have requested the phone number goes back to an ordinary land line, and the poll will stay open until the end of the month. Weston said that the number had helped them deal with more cases over the phone.

Weston added: “Our telephone service is much more efficient now. We have been corresponding with the PCT and they have more or less agreed that we’re not charging excessively.”

The Department of Health has advised surgeries to steer clear of using 0844 numbers, except where practices are already tied to a contract: “We do not expect GPs to break existing contracts, but they should not be entering new ones that would involve patients being charged more than a local call,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Primary Care Trust told EHIPC: “The situation is that as independent contractors the GP surgeries determine the type of telephone systems they have in their surgery. We will, as far as the future is concerned, recommend that they don’t employ 0844 numbers. However, it may not be particularly easy for them to disengage themselves from certain contracts.”

Currently, 11 surgeries in the area use 0844 numbers and none have committed to reevaluating this.

One patient, Sue Davis from St John’s who has used the St John’s House Surgery for 35 years, appeared on BBC Breakfast to state her case.

She said: “I think the bad publicity may stop a number of GPs from adopting 0844 numbers. People will realise there’s a general feeling in the country against doctors charging people for phoning them. The National Health Service is supposed to be free at the point of delivery. If you’re ill and you have to pay for that call, then it’s not.”

According to Pulse magazine, trusts in North Somerset and Leicester have also begun reviews into the use of 0844 numbers in surgeries. It is claimed that GPs in Leicester are stuck in seven year contracts with phone provider Surgery Line NEG.

Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley & Holderness, told the Mirror: “For many people calling their GP surgery can be stressful. They do not expect to be used as props for another money-making scheme.”