CHARGES for controversial NHS phone numbers are to be scrapped following a patient campaign.
BT customers are set for free calls to 0870 and 0845 phone numbers.
The 14 million customers of the communications firm will have calls to these numbers included in their calling packages for the first time from January 16, in a move which will co
st BT £24m.
The 0845 and 0870 numbers are used by firms including banks, building societies, utility companies and the police.
Controversially 0845 is also used by Government health advice line NHS Direct and some GP surgeries have started using the prefix too.
The numbers generate revenue for the organisations which use them.
Last month the Government launched a three-month consultation on whether to ban the use of 084 numbers in the NHS.
John Petter, managing director of BT's consumer business, said: "We hope we have taken a sting out of the price of these calls, but also removed one of those irritations that customers believed was an unfair anomaly."
Charges for calling the two numbers currently cost up to 5.8p a minute for BT customers and the firm said some of its competitors charged about 10p a minute for a daytime 0870 call.
Leeds GP Richard Vautrey, from Leeds Local Medical Committee and the British Medical Association, welcomed the move.
"This is exactly the way forward," he said.
"What we would like the Government to do is work with phone companies generally to do what BT has suggested and ensure when a patient is ringing an NHS service they have the option of including it in their call packages in this way."
