Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing guidance to hospitals on using withheld numbers to contact patients about appointments.

National Health Services may sometimes choose to use withheld numbers when contacting patients, including to protect patient privacy and confidentiality, but we appreciate the frustration that patients can feel when they are unable to contact clinical staff, especially following a call from a withheld number, and recognise the importance of patients being able to establish channels of two-way communication.

The Elective Reform Plan, launched as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure patients are seen on time, but also to improve their experience of care, which includes enhancing and improving two-way communication between patients and NHS services, whether through digital options such as an enhanced NHS App or non-digital routes.