Do NHS phone from a private number and would they leave a message?

[mum2be91]

Had my second trimester bloods and quadruple test nearly two weeks ago and was told I will get a letter with the results, but if I really wanted to know I could phone and get the results last Friday. I decided to just wait for the letter as I figured they would phone me if there were any problems. Today, I have had two missed calls from a withheld number and no message has been left. I assumed if it was the midwife and she needed to get hold of me, she would leave a message, but am I wrong? I am thinking it is just another one of those annoying ppi calls, but you never know.

My doctor always rings from a blocked number and never leaves a message!

Could be - surgeries usually withhold their number if it's the doctor/midwife/etc phoning from their office as opposed to on the patient booking line as they wouldn't want patients ringing back in on that number. They also have to be very careful about leaving a message in case they've got the wrong number - the most you'd normally get is a generic 'Hi, it's Dr Smith, can you call back on xxx number please'.

If your bloods were done two weeks ago though, I'd think it's a bit late for them to be ringing with results as generally they only ring if there's something amiss that they need to see you about or discuss with you, and the results should have been back a week ago at latest.

Usually its a private number but I thought they would leave a message.
When they rang me about a dodgy 20 week scan they tried home, mobile and then work. When they were told I was in a meeting with clients, our receiptionist was told (in a nice way apparently) that she had to interrupt me as they needed to talk to me immediately!

There's no way of knowing - I'm across a couple of hospitals and calls from one comes up as 'number withheld' or somesuch and the other just appears as a normal telephone number.

It's probably some stupid PPI thing as you say but might be worth giving them a call to put your mind at rest.

I have a direct number for my appointed midwife, so I wouldn't think she would feel any need to hide her number from me. But as you say, it has been nearly two weeks and if something was wrong they really should have contacted me earlier and if it was important I would at least expect a: "Hi, can you phone me back to discuss your test results?" message. Will try to forget about it for now.

ring midwife or doc and find out?
my doc calls from a land line and my midwife calls from her mobile number which I have anyway. she once left a message and it was generic, hi this is (insert name) please call me back, with no mention of her role. I've worked for the Nhs and I used to call people on a visible number and leave messages saying please call the Nhs back on 0300 etc

It would probably be a private number. If you don't have a personalised answer phone message it can be dodgy ground to leave a message due to confidentiality issues (if they have the wrong number or it's a shared phone).

I don't want to alarm you, but this happened to me.

The midwife who called to tell me I was high risk was one calling from the specialist unit at the hospital. It wasn't my normal mw (whose mobile number I have). It came up as an withheld number, which I ignored as they are normally sales calls. The call was over two weeks after my test and no message was left either time they called me.

When they finally got through to me they explained it was policy not to leave any form of message (even 'hi, please call' type stuff) for confidentiality reasons and they wouldn't say anything until they got through to me. If they hadn't got me on the phone eventually they would have written.

The good news is, all is fine and I'm due in three weeks .

Of course, it is probably absolutely nothing and you just missed some sales person trying to sell you shit you don't need . But I wouldn't rule out the possibility it was the MW team.

My surgery always calls from a number that comes up as 'Unknown' and the only time they leave a message is if it's something related to a question I specifically asked them, usually like 'is it OK to take this' etc but they wouldn't leave a message regarding test results or anything like that.

All NHS landlines will come up as witheld number and it's up to each HCP as to whether they'd leave a message. Confidentaility means some will leave a vague message and some won't.

The hospital I work in shows up as with held number and yes I'd leave a message asking for a call back, but I wouldn't mention your name on the message.

Also we have a appoint tunes reminder service which is done by people working from home.

I work in a GP surgery and can't leave a message for a patient - even a "Hello this is a message for Mrs XX can you call me back please" type message - unless they've signed a confidentiality waiver specifying that it's OK to leave messages on voicemail.

I got a call from the antenatal test midwife two days after my 12 wk scan and bloods re.being high risk. She left a voice mail asking me to call her back and a number to call.. thankfully ok in the end (after extra tests).

I work for the NHS and ours is a withheld number and we never leave a message. Confidentiality for the patient.