Patients' Rip Off with new phone number

Stockton Liberal Democrats have expressed concern at the change of telephone number for University Hospital North Tees and Hartlepool.

The new number has the 0844 prefix, meaning that it is excluded from the "free call plans" that many people have on their landlines. It is also charged at the rate of up to 5p a minute from a BT landline at peak times and up to 40p a minute on some mobile networks. A public phone will cost you 14p per minute.

More than that though is the fact that the hospital gains an income from every call it receives and Liberal Democrat Councillor Julia Roberts is making a request under the Freedom Of Information Act for the hospital to disclose just how much this income is.

Julia said, " People need to know that these calls are not included in their free calling plans and potentially large phone bills could be run up by concerned relatives enquiring about patients health or those ringing for appointments, test results or whatever.

People already have to pay huge amounts to ring their relatives or to ring from hospital using Patientline and car parking is a big expense for those who visit regularly and can't get there by public transport. This is a further stealth tax for the dubious privilege of listening to "press this" or "press that" and/or listening to "musak" whilst waiting.

I am also urging G.P. practises in the area not to further compound this abuse of patients by signing up to this expensive system. After all, if your local plumber changed to an 0844 number you could ring someone else instead. G.P.'s surgeries and hospitals don't offer this alternative".