10 missed calls from private health company

[londontoibiza]

I booked a private MRI scan a week ago. I have gone through the screening questionnaire on the phone when I booked the scan. All good.

In the past week I have had 10 missed calls from them - at first it was “calling regarding my referral”, now they’re “calling to confirm I’ll be attending”.

As a rule I don’t answer my phone to an unknown number unless I’m expecting a call. If they leave a voicemail, I’ll call back when I’ve verified their number.

AIBU to think 10 calls in 7 days is excessive? I’ve paid, I’m suitable for the scan and I will be attending tomorrow. Surely they don’t need to be in constant contact with me?

No it’s not rubbish because they don’t know who has access to the phone and any medical contact is confidential. Someone may wish to keep contact secret from their DP.

She also is in the North East, where although warm, temps were 6/7 degrees liwer than elsewhere.

@londontoibiza In our area, some NHS scans are done by private
providers, so I’d be fine with the calls even if it is a bit tedious. They often offer late cancellations so anything that helps is fine with me 🤷🏻‍♀️

Why on earth don't you just answer the phone now you know who's calling.

It sounds excessive. But why not just contact them after the first one and say yes I'm definitely coming. If they continued to call after you did that then that is very annoying.

It could be some of the calls are sales calls to get you to take other medical products/services?

Mine does, so does my specialist. I consented to this for my personal mobile on their form. My GP and Dentist both use text messages to confirm “reminder of appt at time X, please reply Y or N” in much the same way as my hairdresser. No time wasted on calls (I also don’t answer unknown numbers to my personal phone - if they are legit they can leave a message).

I used to have to answer unknown numbers when elderly relatives were a concern - in pretty much every case it was spam trying to validate the number.

How is that ironic?

They’re a company with multiple tasks and patients to deal with and are not sitting by the phone waiting for just your call.

It’s no irony, it’s common sense.

What is ironic is that you’re now going to have to ring them multiple times trying to get them to answer because you were too childish to answer their phone calls when they rang you.

Look, OP, I hope that you get whatever reassurance you need from your scan because you come across as disproportionately irritated about a minor thing. Nobody is treating you like a child and nobody at the company has decided that you, personally, are an unreliable person.

They simply have a process that involves them calling each patient until they speak to them and get oral confirmation that they are attending. There could be all sorts of reasons for that, you have no need to know what they are. If you had just answered they would have stopped calling so your issue with “TEN calls!” is entirely of your own making.

You MIGHT have a point if they didn’t call anyone else and it was just you they wanted to check was still attending, but they literally do this for everyone. YOU might know you won’t forget - but they don’t know that! The person calling you doesn’t know if you booked it the day before or 3 months before. They don’t know if you have memory issues. They don’t know if you’ve transposed numbers when writing down the appointment date and time. It’s nothing personal!

Just answer the fucking phone.

Because some don’t for various reasons.
Waiting lists for private healthcare is through the roof. If you don’t need it /want it, many patients would love to have it.

👏👏👏

You're making it all about you - all they want is to reconfirm the appointment, probably because they have developed a policy because other people have not attended in the past. It's no skin off your nose to call them back (and prevent the following nine calls) but for some bizarre reason you are being petulant and taking it personally - it's not personal. Also, unlike the NHS, many consultants are not salaried and are paid per session - so another reason for reconfirming could be to firm up the schedule for that day. Why wouldn't you help people to do their job effectively and efficiently?

You keep on saying you aren’t a child yet acting like one. An adult would understand that part of the clinic’s job is to have your appointment confirmed- Everyone does it these days as a lot of people are time wasters or forget. My hairstylist, nail salon, dentist, doctor , etc - they all contact me to confirm my appointment a couple of days before.

YABU. It’s common for a variety of places to check you’re coming. My garage did for my MOT. And my son’s private ENT.

And what happens if they decide to give your slot away because they couldn't contact you?

Just answer your sodding phone like a normal grown up. Jeez.

I actually have an appointment booked for a private specialist and the wait is 12 months. I originally was going to see them last year and the wait was going to be 3 months, so private waits are getting far longer.

I get text messages, NHS app messages and sometimes letters to remind me of various different medical appointments, NHS and private. I do tend to roll my eyes, because yes, I made the appointment, therefore I will attend. But not everyone does this. Some people do forget. Some people are too scared to attend. None of the services know whether I'm an attender or a flaky person. They don't know if I attend because I have had a reminder, or if I would have always attended because I am good at managing my time. So I just mutter, "yes, I know," to myself and carry on with the day.

I do usually tell them, "this is my phone number, but I can't use my phone at work, so it's not always the best way to contact me." So they shouldn't be surprised if I don't answer.

I do understand why they don't leave voicemail. Even if someone says only, "This is X cling from Y," some relationships could have an abusive partner asking, "what is Y, why are they calling you? I am not allowing this." Although they send texts, which have just the same risk, I should have thought.

IME, most number withheld call are far more likely to be medical than scam. Scam calls are usually from a given number that I don't recognise.

Honestly I hate calls and will always email when I can but this is ridiculous. Just answer a call and confirm your attendance, its clearly policy to confirm via call and you are making someone have to keep call until they get through. I cannot understand being this stubborn when you could just answer or call back or even pop an email over to say you missed a call so just to confirm you are attending and please email if they require any further info.

YABU - and making a mountain out of a molehill. Don’t make everything in life so difficult?!

Imagine going through life with this sort of chip on the shoulder- why would you bother? OP clearly doesn’t have too many actual problems to worry about.

So true - my garage called me on Friday to check I was still coming to my MOT appointment on Thursday. I didn't ignore the call - I just answered, told them yes and it was done. Many companies consider it a courtesy and not an intrusion!

But say you don't turn up...then ring to say "oh I missed the appointment can you book me in again". Do they have to pay again? Obviously yes, but then the staff get grief about it....wasting their time, upsetting the staff. They wanted to confirm with you that you are coming

Btw why not call so back after one or two missed calls I'd be worried it was cancelled

could be to check youre attending.
could be a courtesy call to make sure you’re aware of rules about underwires bras or dye injections or whatever in case you want to change plans on underwear/driving yourself in case you’re a bit unwell or something.
could be the doctor has had a death in the family and will be off for two weeks and another will be there.
could be the hospital is only accepting emergencies as the air con is bust.
could be an offer on another test that goes hand in hand with yours at the same time for clearer diagnoses.
who knows.

if you had answered the phone you’d have known.
weird behaviour not to….

If you answered the call presumably they’d stop calling?