Mark Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines he has issued to primary care trusts on the use of premium rate telephone numbers by GPsfor patients calling their surgeries.
Ben Bradshaw: General medical services (GMS) contractors were banned from using premium rate numbers (09 or 087) via The National Health Service (Primary Medical Services) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations SI 2005 No. 893. The ban came into force in April 2005.
The ban did not include 084 numbers. However, on the 11 April 2005, the Department wrote to primary care trust chief executives advising them to discourage general practitioner practices from changing from geographically based numbers to '084' numbers until after the outcome of the Ofcom consultation was known.
The Department is currently gathering evidence on the use of 0844 numbers in general practice and will consider what further action is necessary in light of that evidence.
Mark Oaten