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Date Published: 31/03/2022

ARCHIVED - Murcia hospitals illegally charging for telephone enquiries

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In a new study, 146 of the 150 hospitals in Spanish cities were found not to be providing patients with freephone numbers

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Murcia hospitals illegally charging for telephone enquiries

The Spanish consumer rights watchdog, FACUA, has spoken out against four hospitals in Murcia for failing to comply with the law requiring them to provide freephone numbers for patients to call.

Following an analysis of the health sector throughout Spain traced the websites of 150 health service providers in the capital cities of each province, FACUA identified 146 hospitals in the country that were in breach of this rule, and four of them were in Murcia city.

Hospital Quirónsalud Murcia, Clínica Juan Carlos I, Hospital HLA La Vega and Hospital Mesa del Castillo have all come under fire, and a complaint has been lodged with the Directorate General for Consumer Affairs and Crafts of the Region of Murcia and with the Directorate General for Consumer Affairs.

In neighbouring Alicante, the Quirónsalud hospital was also found to be in breach of the law.

Of all the 150 hospitals, clinics and health centres analysed in Spain, there were only four that complied with the law: Hospital HLA Jerez Puerta del Sur, HLA Jaén, Viamed Monegal in Tarragona and HM Hospitales León.

This study was based on whether these hospitals provided free telephone numbers and advertised them to customers and users. The 146 hospitals identified in Spain did not offer any toll-free numbers for customer service, using other lines that entail a cost to the caller.

What the law says

Since December 2020, article 21 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of November 16, which approves the revised text of the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws, states that “in cases of basic services of general interest, the companies providing them must have, in all cases, a free consumer helpline. For these purposes, water, gas, electricity, financial and insurance services, postal services, air, rail and road transport, health protection, sanitation and waste services, as well as those that are legally determined, will be considered basic services of general interest.”

Anyone who was been unlawfully charged for a call is entitled to get their money back. FACUA has made it clear that consumers who have been forced to call a hospital or clinic in their area through a paid toll number that they can claim the amount back from them.

In the case of other companies that do not provide basic services of general interest, the law establishes that they must provide a number that does not cost more than a local or mobile call, so if users are forced to call a special rate (902 and 901), they are also entitled to reimbursement of that cost.

It’s not just hospitals breaking the law

This isn’t the first time that FACUA has called out public and private customer-facing companies for not providing freephone numbers.

Last year, FACUA carried out seven studies on the obligation of companies providing basic services of general interest to have a free consumer helpline. In the first study, the association concluded that 7 out of 10 airlines were breaking the law. In the second, it found that 6 out of 10 water suppliers also failed to comply with the law.

It also found that half of the large courier and delivery companies analysed did not offer free telephone numbers and that 9 out of 10 insurance companies did not do so either.

In addition, thirteen out of 29 banks were guilty of the same customer service failure, and the last study in 2021 detected irregularities in four out of ten energy marketers analysed, bringing complaints against 48 in total.

Similarly, last February, the association carried out a study which found that only 9 of the 51 bus companies analysed complied with the regulations, and 42 were reported to the authorities.

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