Hopsitals’ 084 numbers makes trust £80,000

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.”