to not answer my phone to withheld/Unknown/unrecognised numbers

[LonerDave]

It drives me nuts.

But am I BU to not answer these calls

I always assume they are nuisance calls.

Was going to say nhs and school often ring me on an unknown number.

I don't answer them either unless I have a relative in hospital as they have unknown numbers.

I think the organisations who can withhold their numbers should be severely limited - why on earth should dentists or opticians withhold their numbers? I'm struggling to see the sensitivity in having a filling or eye test done.

Abortion clinics, well maybe!

As for I cant leave messages due to patient confidentially so please answer the calls. yes you can. Funnily enough if I phone a hospital and say I am my father's daughter they are more than happy to talk to me yet they have no evidence I am who I say I am. Yet there's this worry about leaving a message. How difficult is it to get consent? It isn't. When someone goes to their GP and asks for a referral, the GP says " are you happy for us to leave voicemail" and you say yes (or no). And it's easy enough for GPs to get permission when a patient registers. Done. There would be far fewer missed appointments if some common sense were employed (and texts and emails).

I ignored a withheld number call this morning but it's ok because it was an automated message from a company trying to sell me new Windows.

2 days we had a woman lying in the morgue! All because her son "never answered a withheld number"

2 days we had a woman lying in the morgue! All because we kept calling from a withheld number.

If the system isn't working, why don't you change it? There should be a way of calling with a number if you need to.

I work from home and never answer withheld or unknown numbers. I cook and so would need to wash my hands before answering and after finishing the call. I will answer if I can see from the number that I need to but I ignore 5-7 dodgy-looking numbers every weekday.

A friend of mine, who also works from home, tries to answer every call in case it's for business but has mobility issues and so can struggle to get to the phone. Truecall (or which ever one she got) had a huge difference to her life.

Round here, the GP and schools use real numbers. Our NHS hospital uses an 0800 number or other real numbers. The technology to do this has been around for a while - why don't other GP/schools/NHS do the same?

Given the number of junk calls people can get, I don't blame them for ignoring withheld numbers. It becomes an instinctive behaviour - unless something happens to change that.

I never answer withheld or unknown numbers. If it's important, they'll leave a message. If they can't leave a message and call me multiple times in the same day then I'll relent and answer it.

If it's a number I don't recognise and it doesn't have a local area code then I'll google it. 9 times out of 10 it is about PPI, personal injury or sales.

2 days we had a woman lying in the morgue! All because her son "never answered a withheld number"

all I can think of when I read this is isn't that what morgues are for? The person isn't any more or less dead because you couldn't reach the son.

I see a private doctor for one thing and her receptionist always says: 'Hello Miss Limited, I'm calling to remind you of your meeting with Elizabeth tomorrow at 11am.'

She does that whether leaving messages or talking live - I suppose that's because it might not really be me or it could be on speakerphone. That seems like a way round it.

Her number comes up because she's not NHS.

My lovely hospital consultant once got a rather brusque reply from me when I answered "withheld" call. I then had to apologise!

I never used to answer them but once I randomly did and it was the school receptionist phoning me to tell me that my daughter had broken her arm. She had to call off her own mobile phone as the school phones were not working that day. Now I always answer.

Lovelyfriend what a strange thing to say. No they are not holding cells for bodies until family can be located days later. Not sure that it makes much difference but I am in Ireland. 2 / 3 days after someone dies they are usually buried. The deceased get sent there, usually only for a few hours whilst waiting on the undertakers.

Sallyingforth that would have nothing to do with me as a nurse. Changing systems may seem simply but that would involve nhs managers and basic common sense, 2 things that don't usually go hand in hand.

I work in a hospital and it drives me mad when people beg for a cancellation appointment then don't answer when we phone to offer them one because it's a withheld number. We can't leave a voice mail for confidentially reasons.

.......just rtft, we have been turned down for funding for a text system so that isn't possible. Plus these are usually last minute appts we need filled asap so we will just keep trying down the list 2until we get someone who will answer and can accept the appointment. We do let people know when they are kn the cancellation list that we will be calling from a withheld number. Not much more we can do than that.

I do answer them because if it's not somebody I want to speak to I take great delight in telling them where they can go!

I do pick mine up because in my experience hospitals numbers don't show up and they sometimes call for appointments etc

I think this has provoked a problem with communication

Technology should enable faster and more accurate communication

But seriously can someone from the NHS then answer me this question?

Whilst you keep saying about "confidentiality" and phoning someone is the only way (agree with other poster that when you send mail it has NHS typed all over it!!)

HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PERSON ON THE END OF THE PHONE IS WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE?

I say this because I have actually done this, my friend didn't want to take a call, I answered it, they asked me if I was "friend" I said yes. They told me all her personal details.

For various reasons, the Lurking household has been without a landline for 11 months now.

The sky hasn't fallen in, and neither of us has missed anything (foi any great import). All medical records (and thanks to MrsLH, there are a lot) have been updated to have mobile numbers, and that seems to have been enough.

Personally I much prefer email anyway, but I realise that makes me a bit of a weirdo preferring 20th century tech to 19th century tech

I find it interesting BT are plugging a free nuisance caller blocking scheme. Maybe they've followed my progress with alarm . Either way, there's a danger that the signal-noise ratio of landlines, coupled with the apps available to the mobile user, could render landlines close to useless.

Loner you could argue then if someone turns up to an appt how do we know they are who they say they are.... I've never asked for I'D!

If your friend had given you a letter addressed to her and allowed you to open it and read her personal details isn't that the same thing? If I ring a number i'd expect to get through to either the patient or a family member.

Email is so much more efficient!

I work for a dentist and our number comes up as withheld.

When I call people to remind them they hang up or even swear at me before hearing who I am..which is nice...and embarrassing for them later.

We have to withhold ours as for some reason if people dial 1471 it comes up with a different line which we can't take incoming calls on

Funnily enough if I phone a hospital and say I am my father's daughter they are more than happy to talk to me yet they have no evidence I am who I say I am. Yet there's this worry about leaving a message

It's nothing to do with worry. They legally should not be talking to you about your father and are not allowed to leave messages. It's the Data Protection act, not just then trying to be awkward.

*HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PERSON ON THE END OF THE PHONE IS WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE?

I say this because I have actually done this, my friend didn't want to take a call, I answered it, they asked me if I was "friend" I said yes. They told me all her personal details.*

Well, their responsibility is to ask. In this case it's you who acted illegally to obtain her personal details.

Many of my 70+ year old patients don't have email....