St Vincent's Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin - incoming calls - no caller id

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In my own experience, I'm far more likely to get a scam call from an actual shown number then a withheld one. At the end of the day, whoever does ring you, it's up to yourself if you engage or don't engage so I don't really see any additional risk from answering a withheld number.

Bizarre as it may sound, if you answer it too fast then on some occassions, the packet of data saying where the call is coming from may not have had time to reach your phone display, especially if it comes from a VOIP phone system (Voice over Internet protocal), in effect someone calling from something other then a mobile or landline)

Certainly I've experienced similar calls from withheld numbers regarding elderly parents from a hospital. One reason I can see is if the consultants is doing the rounds, rings from a landline in one ward and then moves on to the next ward, there is no point in dialling back and possibly the view in the hospital may be to try and minimise call backs as they need someone there to answer the phones.
 
mathepac said:
I got a call back after trying to contact ICT in Vincent's. The caller, who couldn't answer my query, rang me from a mobile which sent the call-id info and thus got answered.
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@dereko1969 if you want to help please read the rest of the thread before replying. [EDITED to correct misspellings]
 
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Peanuts20 said:
In my own experience, I'm far more likely to get a scam call from an actual shown number then a withheld one. At the end of the day, whoever does ring you, it's up to yourself if you engage or don't engage so I don't really see any additional risk from answering a withheld number.

Bizarre as it may sound, if you answer it too fast then on some occassions, the packet of data saying where the call is coming from may not have had time to reach your phone display, especially if it comes from a VOIP phone system (Voice over Internet protocal), in effect someone calling from something other then a mobile or landline)

Certainly I've experienced similar calls from withheld numbers regarding elderly parents from a hospital. One reason I can see is if the consultants is doing the rounds, rings from a landline in one ward and then moves on to the next ward, there is no point in dialling back and possibly the view in the hospital may be to try and minimise call backs as they need someone there to answer the phones.
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I'll say it again. My OP has nothing to do with scam calls nor has it anything to do with wandering consultants. I also wait for caller-ids to be displayed to decide whether to take the call or ring back later.
 
mathepac said:
My question is why would any organization choose to withhold their number from outgoing calls? What benefit is there for them? What benefit does it bestow on the person they're trying to contact?
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Sometimes these decisions are made in long meetings where a dozen other pressing things are also being decided, so the details get lost. It's likely that either the Private Number is a default setting or at the point in time where they chose it they felt there was some benefit. As others have said, it's possible they're trying to minimise callbacks to switchboards or wards.

This is affecting you negatively and it's a reasonable complaint, so I would suggest you contact the hospital in writing to ask them to change it. I would write to the CEO, copying the COO, head of ICT, and the Patient Support service. Lay out the issues and your solution. You might be surprised.
mathepac said:
Some of the caller id withheld numbers are terminated after 2 or 3 rings, before I can answer. This is the old courier trick to "prove" they tried to call you to arrange delivery and you were "uncontactable". One call today went as far as my voicemail and then the caller hung up!!
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When you're calling from within some systems you can hear extra rings before the recipient phone rings, so they may hear 6 or 7 rings when you only get 2 or 3, so they hang up.

It's unlikely that people are routinely ringing just to prove they have called you. Most hospital phone systems don't have detailed logs so they wouldn't have anything to show. Also no-one is realistically going to monitor or investigate that. Anyone making these calls is busy and would love to get it sorted on the first attempt. It's much more likely that people are trying to get through a heap of work and do not have the time to wait.
 
mathepac said:
Like a lot of the world, I don't take such calls, for reasons that are well-publicized.
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mathepac

If you make a vague comment like this, people will assume that you are referring to scams. You may well be referring to something else. But we can't list out all the possibilities and reply to all of them.

If you said, I don't take calls where the ID is not showing, because I have a stalker, then we could have dealt with that.

Brendan
 
mathepac said:
All the more reason for them to send the caller id as the number is not the default I have in my contacts.
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Not really, it makes little sense to display a number for a phone that might be unattended much of the day, or is in a treatment area where staff already have more than enough work to do without adding fielding calls from people whose records they will have no access to. That would be a waste of time and very poor service.
 
OK Leo, the caller id thing is one of a very long list of poor services from and by the HSE. In itself it's a disgrace, but wait 'til you hear the rest.

If you'd like to hear the background and promise not to delete the post or lock the thread, I'll provide the details and name the hospitals but not the doctors concerned.

It started on Dec 8th, 2021 when I attended my GP for my COVID booster. He remarked I seemed to have lost a lot of weight and looked decidedly unwell. He ran a battery of tests and concluded that the best place for me was hospital. Although he said he could offer me prescriptions to take home and fill, he felt the best place for me was hospital, so I drove myself there. He phoned ahead and also gave me a letter to hand in at admission.
 
Itchy said:
You decided to not answer your own phone and its the HSE's fault?! o_O
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I've already explained all that. Why choose to ridicule it? It concerns my health, or rather issues with my health. I'm glad it can be made into a source of tasteless and inconsiderate amusement for you and others.
 
Leo said:
Not really, it makes little sense to display a number for a phone that might be unattended much of the day, or is in a treatment area where staff already have more than enough work to do without adding fielding calls from people whose records they will have no access to. That would be a waste of time and very poor service.
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Except for the fact, that the numbers I'm writing about are staffed on an ongoing basis through working hours by appointment secretaries and nurse specialists across a number of disciplines in three hospitals. Vincent's happens to be the most recent point of contact with the HSE.
 
mathepac said:
Except for the fact, that the numbers I'm writing about are staffed on an ongoing basis through working hours by appointment secretaries and nurse specialists across a number of disciplines in three hospitals. Vincent's happens to be the most recent point of contact with the HSE.
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Hold on, you said that the numbers that are calling you are not showing caller ID... How do you know they the same as the staffed lines? You know a lot of the appointments scheduling calls are made from outside the dept. right? These staff can WFH too.
 
mathepac said:
It started on Dec 8th, 2021 when I attended my GP for my COVID booster. He remarked I seemed to have lost a lot of weight and looked decidedly unwell. He ran a battery of tests and concluded that the best place for me was hospital. Although he said he could offer me prescriptions to take home and fill, he felt the best place for me was hospital, so I drove myself there. He phoned ahead and also gave me a letter to hand in at admission.
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Hi mathepac,

Sorry to hear you are having health problems and hope that you will be on the road to recovery soon.

S.E.
 
mathepac said:
I've already explained all that. Why choose to ridicule it? It concerns my health, or rather issues with my health. I'm glad it can be made into a source of tasteless and inconsiderate amusement for you and others.
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Sorry math, I'm on your side here. What is more important that your health? What are you avoiding (by not answering your phone) that you have decided is more important than a vital health communication, that you are expecting to receive? It seems you have decided to take preventative measures that could have consequences for your health, a pyrrhic course of action that seems to be mystifying the board.
 
@Leo Because when they've phoned alternate numbers (NOK) they give the numbers & departments they ring from, typically central appointments or specific departments. Why complicate a simple question with pointless and unhelpful input? Three hospitals including Vincents across multiple disciplines, oncology, radiology, ENT, urology and imaging all have the same issue - non-transmission of caller ids. Why?
 
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