Emergency numbers - be aware

Sheelah

All,

I am not sure if anyone else has experienced this - it may not only apply to Planet Talk.

(Please excuse terminology - I am not up to date on the correct terms)

We use Planet Talk as the carrier for all our calls. Over the weekend we had a "minor" medical emergency - not serious enough for calling 999 but definitely wanted to speak to someone - NHS Direct in this case.

We could not dial NHS Direct from our home phone due to using Planet Talk. Fortunately, we have a mobile, which we used to get through. (Deviation - needed a trip to A&E and am now recovering)

I contacted Planet Talk and was told that the NHS Direct number is classified as an emergency number by BT, and as such has to be carried by BT. So, if you need to dial an "override" number to get back onto the BT service before you can dial NHS Direct.

Guess what, Planet Talk had never given us the override number, and blamed BT for not informing it's customers of this. I asked why they hadn't bothered to inform customers when they give them the whole sales pitch that they wouldn't be able to dial some numbers - emergency related in particular. They had a million excuses ...

Anyway, I have gone back to BT and will rather use cheap prefix dialing numbers to make my calls - at least I know now that I can use emergency numbers at a touch.

So PLEASE be aware and make sure you know how to get hold of emergency help in an emergency!

take care and keep saving those pennies!!

Edinburghlass_2

In fact BT should have given you the over-ride number, its 1280

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums Sheelah.

The information given to you by Planet Talk was wrong . There are only 2 emergency numbers in the UK, 999 and 112 (the latter a failed sop to European standardisation).

NHS Direct (0845 46 47) is an advice line.

As a point of interest, the bright spark who decided to make the NHS Direct number 'memorable' by making it only 8 digits instead of the standard 11, blocked the use of the remainder of the 08454647xxx range of numbers by other users - so it was probably expensive (but, no worries, taxpayers are paying).

As you've gone back to BT for your calls, I'd suggest you bookmark the MSE UK Callchecker and the MSE International Callchecker so you don't waste money on their sometimes ridiculously expensive calls (N.B. even their charges for weekday 0845 calls can be beaten by 33%).

pricefighter

Are you talking about Planet Talk/Primus Saver see http://www.planet-talk.co.uk/SaverFAQs.aspx?source=saver If you are

and you go to Faq on this site your see

"How am I charged for calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers?"
These types of number are non-geographic and are charged according to BT rates.

So i assume they must deliver 0845 calls with full length numbers normally,perhaps they cant cope with the shortened number in this case,and are passing buck to BT.

bbb_uk

I believe this is just an oversight because of the length of the number being none standard.

Although using Primus for NGNs isn't recommended, I still think they should carry the call because many people do use the NHS Direct advice line and unless you are familiar with 1280 override then would be unable to call NHS Direct. BT do mention the 1280 override code (I think) but believe for most people they are likely to forget about this months down the line.

I believe the response stating it is an emergency number is just a get-out clause and passing the buck on to BT without really looking into the reason they don't carry the call.

I have emailed them asking for them to look into this and copied Ofcom into the email (even informed Primus that Ofcom had been copied into the email). I only copied Ofcom into the email in a hope that the response I get (if I get one) from Primus is a helpful response and not a response similar to that mentioned in the OP.

I am fully aware that Ofcom will not investigate this response stating they can't control which numbers networks choose to carry except BT but as mentioned earlier my only reason for copying Ofcom into it is for a more helpful response from Primus.

Heinz

How about a further copy of that e-mail to feedback@nhsdirect.nhs.uk bbb_uk?

bbb_uk

Heinz wrote:

How about a further copy of that e-mail to feedback@nhsdirect.nhs.uk bbb_uk?

Good idea but too late. If I don't get a reply (I had probs with email server at the time) or the reply I get isn't helpful then I will reply back to Primus and copy NHS Direct into it.

As you say, it really was a bright spark that thought about having a abnormal length 0845 NGN!

Heinz

bbb_uk wrote:

As you say, it really was a bright spark that thought about having a abnormal length 0845 NGN!

Yes, 08 45 46 47 999 would have been just as memorable - and standard (11-digit) length).

BexTech

NHS Direct is next to useless anyway.

bbb_uk

I have received a reply to my email to Primus and like as mentioned in the OP, Primus describe it as a emergency call.

I will email them again pointing out that this is wrong and copying the feedback email address of nhsdirect into the email for their information.