"Ringing NHS Direct for advice"

My husband was taken ill quite suddenly a month or so ago. We knew what the problem was as he had a diagnosis but wanted to know what stage to address the problem at. When I rang he was in extreme pain, breathing very shallow, very pasty, his back was in spasm. We knew it was likely he would be ok, but wanted to just assure ourselves. It was around 11.30 at night, it happened on Good Friday which happens to be a Bank Holiday. Anyway only today we received our phone bill, and the 8 minute call cost £4. We weren’t expecting this cost. We thought the call was on a low cost line. But in any case we had to make contact with someone just to establish how to go about things. At that point we couldn’t go on till the next day especially as it was something that needed medication quickly rather than it be left. Luckily we had medication to hand.

Does anyone know if this is usual and is there any other options we could have made? Thank you (ps we ask as we are on income support and the amount for a phone call does jeopardise our budget)