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Issue with standardised NHS number for contacting patients

Posted By Lister01

"Issue with standardised NHS number for contacting patients"

About: General practices in Lanarkshire NHS Lanarkshire

(as the patient),

I have discovered that NHS Lanarkshire use a standardised number for all NHS calls to patients.  When my doctor's surgery phone, they always leave a message for me to call back. If a hospital or clinic phones, they do not always leave a message.  This means that a patient gets a silent call. Even if they identify that it is NHS, they might not know which hospital or clinic has phoned them. remember, patients could well be attending various places. 

I had this experience just before lockdown when I twice had silent calls using the number. As I did not know it was NHS, I tried phoning back and could not get through. I therefore blocked it as I thought it was a scam call. 

I then made a phone appointment with my GP during lockdown, which was quite urgent. The GP could not get through due to the number being blocked.

I felt very unconnected with the NHS and was getting increasingly worried.

The NHS should ALWAYS identify who is calling/ which hospital or clinic. Even within a health centre, all the different clinics use the same phone number, which appears as "doctor phone back" but unless a message is left - how do you know who is calling.

Although the NHS might say it is for security, the system just does not work for the benefit of the patient.

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Responses

Response from Lesley Mallon, Risk Management Facilitator, University Hospital Hairmyres, NHS Lanarkshire 3 years ago
Lesley Mallon
Risk Management Facilitator, University Hospital Hairmyres,
NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 09/08/2020 at 19:03
Published on Care Opinion at 19:03

picture of Lesley Mallon

Dear Lister01

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback via Care Opinion. I was very sorry to read about your recent experience.

Please be assured that plans are in place to move to a new telephone system which will make it easier to identify that the number calling is from NHS Lanarkshire.

Please accept our apologies for the upset that this recent experience has caused.

Kind regards.

Lesley

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Lister01 (the patient)

While I appreciate that this issue has been taken up, the response does not get to the nub of the problem.

Even if the call is identified as NHS Lanarkshire, if no message is left the patient will not know which service the call is from.

If just one or two numbers are used, that does not address the problem of which service has phoned unless a message is left.

If it is just a silent call, that is no good. If it is a number which cannot be called back, that is no good. If a patient has multiple possible clinics etc, how will they know which one has called?

As it is likely much more will be done by phone in the future, this matter needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

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