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New non-emergency healthcare phone number considered
Ofcom has published proposals to enable the Department of Health to introduce a new memorable phone number - 111 - to make it easier for patients to access non-emergency healthcare in their local area.
Every year Ofcom allocates millions of telephone numbers to communications providers for homes, businesses and organisations to use.
Ofcom's consultation explains how the number allocation process will work and how introducing 111 will make the best use of the UK's telephone number resource.
The Department of Health intends to introduce the service in England which will provide advice and information to the public when they need medical help urgently but the situation is not life-threatening. Ofcom has set out a range of price options for calls to the service on
behalf of the Department of Health, including making calls free to the caller, ten pence per call, three pence per minute or charged at a local or
national rates. The Department of Health will decide on the price of the calls through negotiations with communications providers.
Ofcom's consultation closes on 20 August 2009 and can be found here.
