We are expecting coverage of this story by BBC Radio Manchester (at around 7am on Tuesday 30th September) following sight of the briefing published below.
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| UPDATE !! This coverage was broadcast click the image to listen |  |
This covers the fact that 18 practices in this "Area" remain in breach of their contracts, having failed to take advantage of the opportunity to switch to a "normal" telephone number, which is an option available to them under the terms of their long-term telephone system arrangement.
Claims that they are unable to take this "reasonable step", as demanded by the terms of their NHS contract, are spurious and were identified as such by NHS England in a letter issued last November. This letter additionally deprecated the wholly unnecessary use of alternative telephone numbers, so as to provide a "two tier" service to NHS patients.
We understand that the situation in other NHS England areas is not dissimilar, however only the NHS England spokeswoman in Greater Manchester has publicly disputed the content of last year's letter, with the statement "practices … are still tied into 0844 contracts".
There will be further BBC coverage of this story, including an item in the episode of "Rip-off Britain" to be broadcast on Monday 6 October.
Claims that they are unable to take this "reasonable step", as demanded by the terms of their NHS contract, are spurious and were identified as such by NHS England in a letter issued last November. This letter additionally deprecated the wholly unnecessary use of alternative telephone numbers, so as to provide a "two tier" service to NHS patients.
We understand that the situation in other NHS England areas is not dissimilar, however only the NHS England spokeswoman in Greater Manchester has publicly disputed the content of last year's letter, with the statement "practices … are still tied into 0844 contracts".
There will be further BBC coverage of this story, including an item in the episode of "Rip-off Britain" to be broadcast on Monday 6 October.
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