Plaid Cymru: GPs’ use of premium-rate numbers ‘hugely disappointing’

Doctors’ surgeries in some of the UK’s most deprived areas are using premium-rate numbers that can leave patients facing hefty bills, according to the Guardian newspaper. The Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, has found that GPs’ surgeries in the South Wales valleys are among those using such numbers. Calling the practice “against the spirit of the NHS”, it claimed that such “stealth” charges would put pressure on some of the poorest people and could stop patients seeking treatment. The Labour-controlled Welsh government said it was committed to stopping GPs using 0844 and 0845 numbers but said some surgeries were tied