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

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mathepac

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I'm a patient at the above hospital, with appointments in 2 departments as well as the day hospital.

Trying to stay in contact with them is a nightmare as the ICT gurus seem to have decided that policy dictates transmitting the outgoing callers' caller ids is banned.

This means that as the call recipient, I get "no caller id" displayed on my phone. Like a lot of the world, I don't take such calls, for reasons that are well-publicized.

Other parts of the HSE seem to have a similar policy. Can anyone explain why?
 
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Loads of organisations and individuals have blocked caller ID.
Most phone based scammers use a real number.

Not answering the phone when there is no caller ID does not help avoid scam phone calls, so it is a bit pointless.
Scam phone calls are obvious within seconds, I just hang up
 
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?

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!!

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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I have a landline with dinosaur phone. I have no idea who is calling me until I answer the phone. The scammers are immediately obvious so I choose to entertain myself and play along or just hang up.
 
mathepac said:
My question is why would any organization choose to withhold their number from outgoing calls?
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Because they don't want people calling them back.

I know a hospital consultant who sometimes has to call patients from his mobile number but doesn't want calls or texts back so he hides ID.
 
mathepac said:
I don't share your opinion and it doesn't answer my question.
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The vast majority of scam calls now use number spoofing, with a popular one for the last few months to use a number that closely resembles your own. So if your aim is to avoid scam callers, you'd be more likely to avoid them if you didn't answer calls where the number is provided.

Perhaps to get closer to answering the question though, organisations like the HSE will block outgoing number identification is because outgoing calls will use dedicated lines they don't want calls coming in on. It's better have people ring the numbers that are staffed to correctly direct incoming calls than to have people just try phone departments directly.
 
WaterWater said:
I have a landline with dinosaur phone. I have no idea who is calling me until I answer the phone. The scammers are immediately obvious so I choose to entertain myself and play along or just hang up.
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This has no relevance to my post and doesn't answer my original question or the follow ons I asked to clarify.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
Because they don't want people calling them back.

I know a hospital consultant who sometimes has to call patients from his mobile number but doesn't want calls or texts back so he hides ID.
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This has no relevance to my post and doesn't answer my original question or the follow ons I asked to clarify.
 
mathepac said:
This has no relevance to my post
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It's an example of a person who works in a hospital who blocks his outgoing caller ID, and why.

I can only speculate that lots of other people who work in hospitals don't want to have to field inbound calls from patients either.
 
Leo said:
The vast majority of scam calls now use number spoofing, with a popular one for the last few months to use a number that closely resembles your own. So if your aim is to avoid scam callers, you'd be more likely to avoid them if you didn't answer calls where the number is provided.

Perhaps to get closer to answering the question though, organisations like the HSE will block outgoing number identification is because outgoing calls will use dedicated lines they don't want calls coming in on. It's better have people ring the numbers that are staffed to correctly direct incoming calls than to have people just try phone departments directly.
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I ring specific numbers because those direct lines are staffed by people who can deal with my query directly, without having to ring the "switch-board" and be transferred. Some switch-boards allow callers to dial the extension they want if they know it.

So in my case, the caller-id is important for me as a service user. That should be all that's important to the HSE as a service provider.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
It's an example of a person who works in a hospital who blocks his outgoing caller ID, and why.

I can only speculate that lots of other people who work in hospitals don't want to have to field inbound calls from patients either.
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Your answers are all speculation with no relevant information in response to my query.
 
In answer to your question - Calls from James hospital do not have the caller ID blocked

Its
mathepac said:
I ring specific numbers because those direct lines are staffed by people who can deal with my query directly, without having to ring the "switch-board" and be transferred. Some switch-boards allow callers to dial the extension they want if they know it.

So in my case, the caller-id is important for me as a service user. That should be all that's important to the HSE as a service provider.
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I agree that having access to the correct phone number in the hospital is inmportant.
THe Vincents hospital website has a full directoiry

www.stvincents.ie

Telephone Directory - St. Vincent's University Hospital

www.stvincents.ie www.stvincents.ie

And my appointment card for Vincents has a fuil list of the phone numbers for all out patients department on the back whch is very handy
 
mathepac said:
Like a lot of the world, I don't take such calls, for reasons that are well-publicized.
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huskerdu said:
Not answering the phone when there is no caller ID does not help avoid scam phone calls, so it is a bit pointless.
Click to expand...

mathepac said:
I don't share your opinion and it doesn't answer my question.
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You asked a question and you explained why you don't answer no caller ID calls.

huskerdu helpfully explained to you that this is not a reason for not answering no caller ID calls.

Brendan
 
mathepac said:
I ring specific numbers because those direct lines are staffed by people who can deal with my query directly, without having to ring the "switch-board" and be transferred. Some switch-boards allow callers to dial the extension they want if they know it.

So in my case, the caller-id is important for me as a service user. That should be all that's important to the HSE as a service provider.
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Great, you ring the correct numbers that are staffed for incoming calls.

The people ringing you from within the departments will often be calling you from different lines, ones that are not staffed for incoming calls.
 
huskerdu said:
In answer to your question - Calls from James hospital do not have the caller ID blocked

Its


I agree that having access to the correct phone number in the hospital is inmportant.
THe Vincents hospital website has a full directoiry

www.stvincents.ie

Telephone Directory - St. Vincent's University Hospital

www.stvincents.ie www.stvincents.ie

And my appointment card for Vincents has a fuil list of the phone numbers for all out patients department on the back whch is very handy
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My issue isn't phoning any organization or parts thereof, my issue is with accepting incoming calls with no caller-id displayed from anyone. I already said that IME it is the policy in certain parts of the HSE.

My question remains unanswered - "Why?" Where's the benefit for me as a service user and where's the benefit for the service provider?

Scams have been mentioned a number of times by a number of posters. Why? I never alluded to scams in any of my preceding posts
 
Leo said:
The people ringing you from within the departments will often be calling you from different lines, ones that are not staffed for incoming calls.
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All the more reason for them to send the caller id as the number is not the default I have in my contacts.
 
huskerdu said:
Loads of organisations and individuals have blocked caller ID.
Most phone based scammers use a real number.

Not answering the phone when there is no caller ID does not help avoid scam phone calls, so it is a bit pointless.
Scam phone calls are obvious within seconds, I just hang up
Click to expand...
I never said anything about scams or scammers in my OP. Why jump to the assumption that's why I don't accept calls from unidentified callers?

@brendan opinion is that your reply is helpful, I'm afraid I don't agree
 
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