"Anaesthetic pre-assessment clinic"

I received a phone call from a 'no caller ID' number. The person on the phone asked me to verify my name and tell them my date of birth.

I asked how I can guarantee who the phone call was from, to give my personal details to, because there are so many scam phone calls and they said it was the hospital and this is how they did things. I pointed out that just because it’s quote ”how you do things” doesn’t mean it is correct. I said that they had rung me, so the onus is on them to prove their validity, not on me.

The person got frustrated with me using a slightly aggressive tone which made me even less likely to trust them. I asked them to tell me their name (so I could search for their registration details which I think is my right) and they refused to identify themselves.

I was now less likely to trust them and felt again I wasn’t happy talking about my health to someone who I felt was taking such a tone with me. The person then moved on to say that if I refused to give my personal details they would cancel my operation. I repeated back to them what they had said, to check because I was quite shocked at being, I felt, threatened by a medical personnel who didn’t introduce themselves so I have no idea whether they were a secretary, nurse, or doctor.

I at this point advised them that I am a consultant specialist (although this isn’t really relevant I accept) and the fact that the person's default with me trying to protect my personal details when dealing with an unknown, unwilling to identify, 'no ID caller' was, I believe, to threaten me with being removed from having my surgery.

I at this point could not quite believe this was the way that a Fiona Stanley Employee would be trained in dealing with, as you may decide to call me, a difficult customer. Maybe it was a crank call and you can ignore this. But at this point, my understanding is that my planned procedure has been cancelled?

If this was a true call, and I think that it probably was, I think it identifies a few failings in your system, and the individual who rang me is as much a victim of the lack of process and training as I am.

Hopefully, we can address these, what I believe to be, system failings together and as soon as possible. I have written this complaint immediately after the event, and have made it a true account of what happened. I did receive another 'no caller ID' call 31 minutes after the initial call, but by this point was in the shower. If they had called back sooner I would have been able to answer, but as a quadriplegic, I can’t run out to grab the phone.