Hospital calls to come with prefix IDs amid scam fears

The Hospital Authority said its new standardised caller identification prefixes has been put into operation to make it more convenient for patients and their families to access medical care as many refuse to answer its calls out of concern they may be made by scammers or sales staff. From Tuesday until the end of June, facilities under the authority will gradually adopt a total of 200 phone lines under two prefixes, 18285 and 18286. Speaking on an RTHK programme, Larry Lee, a chief manager at the authority, said the move was made after frontline staff found that the problem of their calls going unanswered had become increasingly apparent. "We mostly call patients and their families when we need to change appointments because of extreme weather or a typhoon," he said. "But the important thing is it could also be an emergency call from the hospital to let the family know when a patient's condition changes." Use of the standardised caller identification prefixes will start from four smaller-sized clinics: Cheshire Home, Chung Hom Kok; David Trench Rehabilitation Centre; Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service; and Ngau Tau Kok Jockey Club Family Medicine Unit. Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital will be the last to adopt the prefixes on June 29. Lee said the new numbers are solely aimed at assisting the public in identifying where the incoming calls are coming from and that the phone number patients use to call the hospital or clinic for inquiries remain unchanged. For certain services such as non-emergency transfer services and outreach services, he said, direct lines or mobile phone numbers may still be used due to operational requirements. Lee also reminded the public that they should still remain cautious when receiving calls and not provide any personal information to suspected scammers. Edited by Tony Sabine