Patients are being held to ransom' by having to pay a premium rate to call a Borehamwood doctors surgery, it was claimed this week.

The Grove Medical Centre in Grove Road, has introduced a new telephone number for its surgery with an 0870 prefix which charges 8p per minute - significantly higher than a normal local call.

The surgery has agreed a deal with a phone company which, in return for installing a new phone system free of charge, will take all the profits from the calls for the first five years.

The surgery changed its number on Monday, January 24 and the decision has been met with a raft of complaints.

David Endacott, the deputy chairman of the Borehamwood branch of Pensioners' Rights, said: "I think it's disgusting. "People ring the surgery when they are in need and now they must pay eight pence a minute for every time they are in need. These surgeries always keep you waiting on the line whether they put you on hold or ask you to press this button or that button for the service you need. The cost can really add up.

"It's not fair to do this, especially not to senior citizens. The money is going into the coffers of the surgery which, to me, is not what the National Health Service is about. We are being held to ransom."

Dr Andrew Schiapira, a partner at the surgery, said: "I can sympathise with people who don't want to pay. What they must understand is there just isn't enough money in primary care at the moment and this is something we have to do. It's not a decision we have taken lightly."

The decision to change the number was taken after the patients encountered long delays with the previous line which also would have been non-transferable when the surgery moves to its new home at the Boulevard 25 shopping park.

Dr Schiapira said: "The key advantages of this new system is that calls are answered faster, the patients are put on hold less and due to additional phone lines coming into the surgery, patients are less likely to encounter the engaged tone.

"After our current deal with the company has expired and the system has been paid for, we will look at returning it to a local call rate," said Dr Schiapira.