£30 to call the doctors for an appointment

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mercmanuk

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just received my online mobile phone bill,should be £15 month this month its £45.ive called my provider and they have said i called an 0844 number thats £1.50 per minute,turns out its my doctors.yes when you phone for an apointment and are held in a que for 20 minutes.
20 minutes £1.50=£30

i intend calling the practise manager and writing to my local free paper and manchester evening news
 
Better directed to your mobile phone supplier. These are low cost numbers, about 5p per minute from a landline. Who's making the profit?!
 
Better directed to your mobile phone supplier. These are low cost numbers, about 5p per minute from a landline. Who's making the profit?!

Agree, 0844 is a class of fixed rate numbers (not quite local rate though). calling from a BT line there would be a maximum per minute call charge. Mobiles and otehr networks would (& do vary).

I had a similar thing where we often used 0870 numbers from a conferencing service, some of my team would often rack up £100+ / month when we looked into it our mobile provider was charging much more than the 10p / min it was from a landline.
 
Why would a dr practise use a 0844 number when most callers are local? Do they get a cut? Why not an 0845 number at least. A lot of landline providers with free call packages don't charge for 0845 numbers but they do for 0844. Hmmm wonder why the difference?

Call me a cynic but it smacks of pigs with snouts in troughs.
 
I don't think they get a cut, As far as I know this is part of a surgery management package, the people who install it get the cut, the GP simply get a very good deal on the initial cost of the admin setup which he/she prefers not to be bothered with anyway.
 

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