PERSHORE Health Centre's use of a premium rate telephone service is being investigated by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust.

The move follows criticism of surgeries up and down the country switching from local call lines to 0844 numbers.

Now the PCT has stepped in to try to get the practice stopped in Worcestershire.

Chief executive of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust Paul Bates said: "The PCT itself cannot ban these numbers and cannot impose restrictions outside the national GP contract arrangements. Nevertheless we are going to investigate their use and we will work with local GPs to identify alternative options which GPs will be encouraged to use."

Pershore Health Centre is just one of a number of doctors' surgeries that compels patients to use an 0844 number. This can cost 40p per minute from a mobile, 4p more a minute than a landline number.

Practice manager at the Pershore centre Pam Ford said that the 0844 number did not cost the 4,000 patients a week that use it, much more and that the practice was not making money out of it.

Mrs Ford added: "We went forward with the system because we wanted to improve the telephone service we were giving to our patients.

"Calls now get answered and directed to departments quickly, or patients are told where they are in the queue. We have had no adverse comments from our patients."