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New phone system at Ship House Surgery - tracey h (15th Jan 2005 - 12:32:14) Ship House Surgery has just changed its phone number. It is now a national rate number, starting with 0870. You then have to wait through the queuing system to be connected to appointments, and there is no way of knowing how long it will take to be connected. When I tried to make an appointment on Thursday morning, it took me a total of 20 minutes to get through (one 10 minute call, then I gave up and had to take the kids to school, before ringing again and hanging on for another 10 mins). All this at the peak national rate tariff. I wonder if the surgery has their patients' best interests at heart, or whether they stand to gain financially from using this new number. I have written to the Practice Manager about this and will be interested to hear their response. Anyone else had a similar experience? The more people complain, the better chance to get them back onto a local (or at least local rate) number.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Eneida Nelson (16th Jan 2005 - 15:29:01) Hi Tracey The last time I tried to pre-book an appointment I was annoyed to be told this was no longer allowed, as you must now phone each morning to see if they can fit you in. If they're now making it difficult to even phone the surgery the cynic in me (and I'm getting very cynical nowadays) says this is part of some cost cutting excercise, as only the most determined will persevere. I understand there's a government incentive at the moment for doctors to cut expenditure on drugs - this should do the trick!!

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Stephen (20th Jan 2005 - 15:35:05) Tracey, That is because the majority of GPs revenues are made up of payments per patient on their list. Therefore, the more they can do to DISCOURAGE people from making appointments, the more profit they make. Cynical, but can you blame them. It's hard to earn any more other than getting more people on their list.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - tim (20th Jan 2005 - 16:01:06) indeed 0870 numbers do make money for the owners. See http://www.saynoto0870.com/ for alternatives (unfortunately they don't have one for Ship House;-) )

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Jane (21st Jan 2005 - 15:48:54) To telephone an 0870 number costs the caller 8p per minute, its actually 6.something and with VAT it is 8p. Shiphouse surgery should be making this clear on the slips of paper they are giving out with the new number. It is my belief that the surgery do not make this money but the owner of the line,the surgery just get a fancy telephone system. There was a whole debate about on Radio 2 last week about this very subject, so any interested persons should try the BBC webb site.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Alex Cameron (22nd Jan 2005 - 08:52:41) I guess this is as good a time as any to ask for a little clarification on the GP business. Despite being with a few other people for a drink the other day, none of us could work out how GP surgeries make money, or for that matter, even work. The best guess was government/NHS subsidies - presumably not that accurate. Could someone elaborate for the sake of simple curiousity?

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Alastair (26th Jan 2005 - 11:01:13) Having working in the telecoms industry, I can explain how the 0870 numbers work. The surgery makes a few pence out of each call into the surgery, this money pays for the hire of new telphone eqipment such as a new switchboard, new phones etc. The idea is that it enables calls to be answered faster and lets people book or cancel appointments out of hours (where calls cost about 3p per minute). So instead of BT making money from the calls, the surgery can use the extra revenue they recive to improve the service to patients. I must admit that I have actually asked my GP to look into the system because at the moment I can never get through to book an appointmnet in the mornings, but with an 0870 number, lines should never be engaged. These numbers should NOT be confused with premium rate numbers (as wrongly cited on the Radio 2 show) Premium rate number are usually charged at 50p or £1 per minute. The 0870 typically costs between 3p to 6.5p.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Eneida (5th Feb 2005 - 14:25:27) I read in today's Daily Mail that the Department of Health has announced it's banning GP surgeries from using the 0870 scheme. Is this another victory for Liphook.co??

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - tracey h (8th Feb 2005 - 13:56:07) People power again!! Thanks to the Herald for publicising this one too. I only hope I am not struck off the patients list... By the way, I did get a reply from the Practice Manager. The last line was a classic - 'if you continue to have problems contacting the surgery, please do not hesitate to contact me'

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Eneida Nelson (8th Feb 2005 - 15:33:54) Hi Tracey Well done! We'll probably both be struck off as the Herald managed to mention my name too (although they left bits off me which I thought didn't make sense - but then I quite often don't). I just love the last line of that letter!!

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Alex Cameron (8th Feb 2005 - 23:21:44) Not that we want to discourage doctors from using technology of course, as only 21% of GPs support existing government IT programs. My surgery in Liphook (Newtown, on STattion Rd) has a website that allows you to order repeat prescriptions online - http://www.newtownsurgery.nhs.uk. Now that's cool. Couldn't help wondering why all their paper records aren't electronic yet though. Now, a thread of ideas we could put forward to them so that they could use technology to make all our lives easier would certainly be an interesting "challenge" to the intellect, so desperately demanded by some...;)

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Freddie Dawkins (9th Feb 2005 - 10:43:53) Just a sideline to this about Ship House Surgery: Over the past 3-5 years there have been massive changes in doctors and practices in the place. There were one or two locums who, in my view, should not have been allowed to call themselves doctors. But the new(ish) team are excellent. I've had nothing but great support and medical care from several of the doctors and the nurses. I have a feeling that some of the new-fangled gadgets, such as the phone/money idea, are probably stemming from an over-eager practice manager who's been charged with increasing profits at the surgery. The doctors probably had a presentiation, saw the bottom line, and said "fine, do it". Without being asked to consider the repercussions it would have on patients....? Freddie

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Freddie Dawkins (12th Feb 2005 - 10:47:44) All - Popped into the surgery yesterday and had a little chat with the rnice and helpful eception staff. They said that when they first carried out a survey, the biggest complaint from patients was the telephone system and not being able to get through. So, they looked around for the best deal and decided to go with the system they've installed - and now open the phones at 08.30 to take calls earlier. There have been so many complaints, the poor old practice manager is on the verge of resigning. So, I think patient power has definitely been shown to work. Don't know what happens next though. Wait and see.... Freddie

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Alex Cameron (14th Feb 2005 - 09:58:27) Revenue would seem to be a major concern, however: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4258391.stm

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Janet (19th Nov 2005 - 13:47:17) I found this message board after a search on Google for Ship House surgery. I have been trying to call them and kept getting 'number not recognised' on the phone. Their old number 723296 is still listed in all the directories for 2005-2006. I have been registered with this practice for over 19 years but it appears they didn't think to let me know that they'd changed their phone number! Why, I wonder, did they not set up a 'this number has been changed to...' type of message service for those of us who tried phoning the old number? I personally think 0870 numbers are a complete rip-off and it's disgraceful that an NHS surgery should be using one. These are purely money-making scams; they say they are 'national rate' but that is simply not true. Typically they cost 8p per minute, of which a percentage goes to the business itself. Were I to make a 3 minute call it would cost me 24p. With my current phone provider, the same call to an ordinary landline number would cost me just 3p, so the 0870 number is 800% more expensive!!! However, having said all that, I still need to contact the surgery and I don't know their number as it's not listed anywhere. Could some kind person please let me know what it is?

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Janet (19th Nov 2005 - 14:27:33) A further search has just revealed the new number as 0844 4778646. These 0844 calls cost about half that of 0870, at 4.6p per minute, but are still more costly to call than both 0845 (3.6p per minute) and ordinary landlines. So my 3 minute call will now cost 12.75p, which is still more than 400% more expensive than a standard landline call. Ah well, at least I can now contact the surgery.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Chris (21st Nov 2005 - 05:17:18) ...unless you're phoning the doctor every day, twice a day, 4p per minute (12p for three) doesn't seem a lot.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - janet (21st Nov 2005 - 22:36:19) Well Chris, I guess 4p a minute may not seem like very much, but why should it cost 4 times as much to phone the doctor as it does to make any other call? It's likely to be along call if you're on hold for any length of time. But being on hold is preferable to being cut off. At least if you're on hold you have the option of whether to end the call or not. I tried phoning this morning and the system cut me off almost straight away. I got a recorded message saying something like "please call back when we're less busy" and then it simply ended the call! How am I supposed to know when they're gping to be 'less busy'?! It seems a bizarre system to me.

Re: New phone system at Ship House Surgery - Chris (22nd Nov 2005 - 16:31:57) An explanation that I was given is that the system is now geared around stopping people from making advanced appointments which they often do not turn up to. So the result is you get people phoning during the morning of the day that they want the appointment to be fulfilled and this causes "extremely busy periods".

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