The Department of Health has issued directions to NHS organisations on the use of 084 telephone numbers.
The directions ban hospitals, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities from using telephone numbers that cost patients more than the equivalent cost of calling a geographical number to contact the NHS.
However, in a letter to accompany the directions, Nick Hall, deputy director at the DH, says the directions do not prohibit organisations from using specific number ranges to contact NHS services.
It adds: “Organisations remain free to use non-geographical number ranges such as 084, providing that patients are not charged more than the equivalent cost of calling a geographical number to do so.”
The directions exclude NHS Direct and GP practices are to be covered by separate amendments to their contracts.
The directions say NHS bodies must not enter into, renew or extend a contract unless they are satisfied that “having regard to the arrangement as a whole” people will not pay more to make calls than they would to a geographical number.
NHS organisations have until 21 December 2010 to review their arrangements and either renegotiate or end their contracts if they decide patients will be paying more.
The directions say that if it is not possible to change or end such contracts, the NHS must consider introducing a system that allows a caller to ask to be called at the NHS body’s expense.
The directions have been heavily criticised by 084 campaigner David Hickson who claimed it still allowed revenue sharing numbers to continue.
He said it meant trusts would also need to have comprehensive knowledge of the telephone tariffs to which all possible patient callers have subscribed, including the precise details of the cost differentials for different tariffs along with the average call durations for callers from each.
He added: “The whole concept is simply wrong in principle. The idea of balancing out discounts obtained by some patients against costs incurred by others has no place in the NHS.
"This type of consumerist nonsense is totally unacceptable in the context of any public service.”