Calling a Hospital Bed Phone 07041 Number

Essex_Jim

Mods, I can't find a thread already running for this topic. If there is one, please relocate.

My Mother in Law has recently spent five weeks in Hospital following a Stroke. My Father in Law would call her each morning before visiting her later in the day. Sometimes on his mobile. Sometimes on a Landline.

As a consequence there is now charges of an additional £60 on the Landline per month for two months and at leat one £90 mobile bill.

Example from the landline 19.29 minute call costing £9.20.

She did have a mobile which had intermittent signal. When visiting we noted the same intermittancy on mobile signal.

The reason for posting is simply to make everyone aware.

Disgusted_Tunbridge_Wells

Used car adverts sometimes feature "070" phone numbers to hide the seller's real phone number. The problem is they look like a UK mobile number and it is not clear that they are significantly more expensive.


They used to have a recorded message at the beginning of the call explaining the costs but this interfered with lots of automated systems which use these numbers so they scrapped the message.


These are the call costs courtesy of Ofcom:


070 numbers can cost between 4p and 65p per minute if calling from a landline (and often include a call set-up fee, sometimes of up to 51p). From a mobile phone these numbers can cost between 30p and £1.50 per minute.

Ian011

Ofcom's snapshot of call prices is quite out of date.

From a mobile phone calls to 070 numbers can cost up to £2.50 per minute.

These are premium rate numbers.


When first introduced in 1996, calls to personal numbers starting 070 cost the same as calls to mobile numbers starting 077, 078 and 079. Mobile phone contracts did not have inclusive calls to other mobile networks.

Over the next two decades, the cost of calling mobile numbers plummeted and inclusive deals extended to cover calls to all UK mobile numbers.

The call price for 070 numbers remains high because part of the call cost is passed on and pays for provision of the service.

Ofcom has recently reviewed the workings of 08, 09 and 118 numbers and made significant changes to how these call costs are declared. Another review dealt with 0500 numbers and these will be phased out by June 2017. A review of 055, 056, 070 and 076 numbers is likely in the next year or so.


The trick with these hospital bed phones is to use the phone to make free outgoing calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers but to warn people to not call them back on the 070 number as it is a premium rate call.

Most hospitals are happy for outside people to call the normal ward telephone number and will pass a message on asking the patient to call the caller back, which they can do free of charge as long as it is to an 01, 02 or 03 number.

The bedside phones invite users to give out the 070 number assigned to that unit but there is nothing whatsoever about the cost that will be incurred by anyone who calls that number.

Essex_Jim

Thanks Ian011. Very interesting.

While the system 'can be worked' with the patient calling out, circumstance means that could be difficult to follow. My Mother in Law was not great for the first few days and ongoing would not think to call out.

For me, this is money out of misery.

Really disappointing that the OFCOM data is out of date. If they can't maintain the base data you question if they can monitor the industry.

Ian011

Ofcom tends to update the list of typical call costs every 12 to 18 months or so, and that is usually sufficient. It would be a waste of their resources to update this list more frequently as they have many far more important issues to deal with. When prices change, they rarely exceed the maximum already shown in the list.

The list was last updated in July 2015 to reflect the new call charges for 08 and 09 numbers. What's caught them out this time is the massive number of price changes over the last few months that now exceed the highest prices previously charged.

Other lists, published elsewhere, are even more out of shape. I see some that have information that is four or five years out of date.