Giving out personal details on the telephone

GrumpyOldTimer

The Financial Services Authority tell you not to give out personal information (like your Date of Birth) over the phone. Yet my local hospital phones me up (with an unknown number) and asks my Date of Birth before they will tell me what they want. I do understand that medical professionals can't divulge sensitive medical information unless they know they are talking to the right person, but this feels like they are training us to break the FSA advice. There must be better ways of dealing with this? Oh, and unlike the Fraud line for my credit card company, you can spend hours in queues if you phone the hospital back.

Woodstok2000

I don't think hospitals are bound by FSA guidance...You can't do much with just a date of birth, so it's a low risk.

eskbanker

At the risk of being pedantic, the Financial Services Authority hasn't advised on anything since 2013, when it was superseded by the Financial Conduct Authority…

However, their remit is clearly financial services, and so any advice about not giving out personal details has to be seen in that context, i.e. to protect against 'investment' scammers, etc. As you accept, the NHS is operating in a different space and clearly has an obligation to verify that contact is with the right individual before disclosing anything personal - what do you suggest would be "better ways of dealing with this"?

Albermarle

The NHS online communications seem to use your date of birth as a main identifier.

giraffe69

I wouldn't give any detail to someone ringing from an unknown number. Doctors surgeries and hospitals particularly like doing this. I wouldn't have thought it hard for a number to give the detail of who is calling but not to accept incoming calls.

lincroft1710

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81927318#Comment_81927318

My GP surgery uses birthdate to help identify patients

SiliconChip

Unlike @giraffe69 my GP practice calls from the number that I use to call them so my phone identifies them, and the hospital where I've had my knees replaced seems to have implemented a new system in the last 9 months that says the hospital name is calling rather than just a number, so I don't have any issue giving my DOB if it's asked for. If you're unsure who is calling and you're not comfortable giving your DOB perhaps you could offer to give your NHS number (which is on every prescription) instead, they should be able to find you from that, and I'm not sure what a scammer would be able to do with it.

FrugaiMacDugal

You will have an NHS number on any letters from NHS, if not find it here, ask caller for that to verify, or quote that to caller.

It's called a CHI number in Scotland.