Notes from the Watertower

The 084 (and 087) scandal in Doctors Surgeries

Anyone not paying attention recently will have seen the recent press and news coverage of the issues with 084 numbers being used in Doctors Surgeries…

The claim is that these numbers are required for call queueing.

Well, for small/medium surgeries and office, this simply isn’t true. (It may be true if you need network call queuing, but then you’re talking more than 60 lines and that then becomes a bigger problem entirely)

The surgeries have been ripped-off by the telecom equipment vendors, who are making money off every call placed to the surgery. The PBX supplied (with long, expensive leasing and maintenance terms) which implements the call queuing is only there to make sure every call gets answered – at which point the telecoms company starts to earn money on the revenue generating 084 numbers.

It’s a scandal. There is no other word for it. Doctors, etc. are brilliant people, but they can’t be expected to know everything, so they have to trust what they’re told, and IMO what they’re being told is a pack of lies designed to line the pockets of the telecom vendors who supply the equipment and the 084 numbers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Telecoms, Whinges. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.