MAKING a phone call to the doctor will soon be costing thousands of patients in the South East Cornwall area more money. The patients who attend the Old Bridge Surgery at East Looe, which also has outposts at the villages of Polperro and Pelynt, responded to a survey about the practice in general. It revealed that people had the most concerns about the length of time they sometimes have to wait when the phone lines are busy. To rectify this the practice will be the first in the North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust to operate a profit making telephone line with an 0870 code number. The Looe surgery believes from their research, there are currently only eight other surgeries in the whole of the UK running a similar system. The new system, which clicks in on February 23, will provide more phone lines and patient information, but at a cost of an extra 3.7 pence per minute. The practice currently operates a BT line at the normal rate of 3p per minute between 9am - 6pm from Monday - Friday but that is set to rise to 6.7p per minute when the new code becomes operational. The difference between the two rates will go straight to the phone provider to help offset the cost of the new system. Practice Manager Ron Dutton said that improving patient communication with the surgery was important, but the total cost of providing it could not be met from the practice itself, and the Primary Care Trust were also unable to help financially. 'The new system will cost between ten and fifteen thousand pounds and we made the decision that the new 0870 code would be a small price for our patients to pay for the improvement. 'We are only talking a few pence here, and you would have to be on the phone for about seven minutes before you reached the average price of a daily newspaper,' said Mr Dutton. 'We have to provide as quick a response as possible to our 9,500 patients, which can go up by an extra 6,000 temporary residents in the holiday season. There are times when our phones are glowing red because of the heavy demand.' He added that the new service would provide patients with more options, like information they are in a queue to have their call answered and could then choose to ring back later if they wished. 'We will not be making a profit out of this ourselves,' he added. 'The system is leased and will always cost us money.' Elderly However, not all patients share the surgery's view. Mrs Lesley Lee of Killigarth near Polperro, says the new number will hit the frail and elderly who have greater health needs and who are very often living on limited resources (see Letters to the Editor). Sarah Fisher of the North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust confirmed that to the Trust's knowledge this is the first GP surgery in their area to introduce an 0870 business number. 'The Old Bridge Surgery is correct in that it is not within our criteria for improvement grants to pay for new or updated phone lines,' she said. 'People tend to forget that although they receive free healthcare at their local health centres, it is still run as a business and staff such as receptionists and phones all have to be paid for.'
