Hospitals drop plan to use higher-rate phone lines
There was fury this month when University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust brought in a single 0844 number for its three city hospitals.
Zuffar Haq, chairman of Leicester Patients' Group and a member of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, condemned the decision, because numbers with an 0844 prefix can cost 35p a minute from a mobile and are not included in free call packages for land lines.
Patients will now be able to call 0300 303 1573.
The number is recognised by free call packages and is cheaper for mobile phone callers.
Trust chief executive Malcolm Lowe-Lauri said the 0844 number had been introduced "with the best of intentions".
John Aird, the trust's information technology chief, said: "We wanted a single number for all three hospitals to enable us to answer the public's calls more quickly.
"We chose 0844 as a prefix, but declined the option of making money out of the number.
"However, people have since pointed out that if you have a call package on your home phone or a pre-pay mobile, the 0844 number is not recognised and could end up costing more.
"We said last week we'd look at this again.
"The criticism was justified and so we've listened and learned and we've ditched 0844 and changed to an 0300 number.
"People will be able to call Leicester's hospitals with the old numbers for the next 12 months at least, until we are happy with the level of knowledge about the new single number."
Mr Haq said: "This is excellent news. I had every faith the trust would look again at this.
"I am delighted the trust has listened to the patient voice and hope GPs using 0844 numbers will now follow in its footsteps.
"The cost of these calls to the hospitals would have caused an unnecessary burden to patients."
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