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See the news release for details of how Gloucestershire NHS has finally moved into compliance with the Directions to NHS bodies of December 2009, whilst allowing its contracted GPs to remain in breach.
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This detailed briefing has been prepared for the benefit of the relevant officers of the NHS Commissioning Board who are already taking on the responsibilities that they will formally assume from 1 April 2013, in place of PCTs.
We publish here our formal response to the BIS consultation referred to below
The document linked to above refers to how Pudsey has continued to get it wrong, despite guidance from the campaign. It refers to the earlier published news release.
This briefing contains all of the latest coverage in the Kent Messenger (multiple titles) as well as references to other materials, e.g. maps, lists of GPs, detailed briefings arguing the points.
When asked to state the “policy” of the Secretary of State for Health on the issue of use of expensive telephone numbers, Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter has replied with a written answer (Hansard 29 Oct 2012 col 95W). He implies an ignorance and possible lack of concern about whether or not the terms of GP contracts are being enforced in every locality. Click above to view the question, the answer and also our annotation, which explains and reports what is actually happening.
We react to news of a cold call victim having to take personal action, and succeeding.
This highlights the need for our proposed change in procedure for dealing with cases of “Nuisance calls”.
This briefing paper (updated 10 December) explains how use of concurrent 084 and geographic numbers by NHS GPs IS a two-tier NHS. It includes simple quotations from relevant sources, actual examples and a detailed explanation with an illustration.
One quoted example refers to geographic number options, but concludes “we must stress in case of emergency please ring 084…”. My briefing concludes … It must be clear to all that a TWO-TIER NHS is unacceptable … at its very front door (access to GPs) … and obviously beyond! On Friday 19 October, the Kent Messenger reported and commented on the fact that more than 30 GP practices across the county continue to use and adopt banned 084 telephone numbers - see images from the paper.
The investigation which led to this report was prompted by a detailed briefing issued on 7 September 2012 by the fair telecoms campaign. View the full news release to read our comments.
This release draws attention to the imminent closure of the consultation on implementation of the provisions of the EU Consumer Rights Directive, notably article 21 which requires a ban on use of expensive telephone numbers for "post contract" contact.
It stresses the need for responses to ensure that the scope is as comprehensive as possible, and also makes the point that this formal prohibition must be used to indicate what is generally unacceptable. |
Please feel free to comment. We approve all comments before publishing.
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