Exclusive: End of rip-off hospital phone charges under Ofcom crackdown

"Rip off" phone bills for worried friends and family calling relatives recovering in hospital are set to become a thing of the past under an Ofcom crackdown.

The telecoms regulator will for the first time start to regulate the cost of 070 numbers, which currently hit consumers making 2.6 million calls a year with charges of around 50p a minute.

Draft Ofcom plans show it is planning to cap the amount providers of 070 numbers can charge hospitals to bring them in line with standard mobile tariffs.

This will see the amount hospitals pay for these phone lines fall dramatically by 98 per cent from about 40p per minute to a maximum of 0.5p per minute.

Currently people who use 070 numbers are paying as much as £3.40 for a short call and as much as £100 to speak to relatives staying in hospital for an extended period. However under the change the amount consumers are charged per minute should also fall dramatically. 

Previously the former Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, described the charges as "a total rip off".

He said: "When channels are free at home and people have already paid for their TV licence, it is unfair for them to need to pay it again. Hospitals and these businesses are treating the sick as cash cows."

Hospedia, which runs bedside TV and phone services hospitals nationwide and made £21.4m in revenue last year, is among the companies that use the costly numbers. 

In 2006, Ofcom called for a "substantial" reduction in incoming call charges after a review of the charges by hospital bedside services.

When Ofcom brought in the 0.5p cap on wholesale mobile charges at the turn of the Millennium prices for consumers fell significantly, largely because they were brought into the allowances consumers buy from their mobile provider rather than being charged for separately.

Ofcom is confident the same will happen when it places a price cap on 070 numbers, which it said, should “reduce the potential for consumer harm through ‘bill shock’”.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “These numbers are often mistaken for mobile numbers, but it’s important for people to know they generally cost a lot more to call.

“Those charges can lead to people receiving much higher bills than expected. So we’ve set out plans to address this by cutting the cost of calling 070 numbers.” 

David Hickson of consumer group Fair Telecoms Campaign, which has been demanding a clampdown on 070 numbers, said: “Providers of hospital bedside phone services exploit friends and family contacting a patient in hospital by use of 070 telephone numbers. This rip-off will now shortly be brought to an end.”

“Once these rule changes are in place, it will no longer be possible to use these as premium rate numbers. Call charges will be aligned with those which apply to calls to other 07 (mobile) numbers. This change will make what many are currently misled into believing to be true.”

The draft rules published by Ofcom follow a consultation launched by the watchdog last May. 

They must now be sent to the European Commission to give it the opportunity to amend the planned rules. The Commission has the power to veto the changes, though it has never done this. If the European Commission accepts Ofcom's new rules they will be introduced next autumn.

Hospedia has been contacted for comment. 

laura.miller@telegraph.co.uk