Hospital Authority enhances protection of patient privacy Family Medicine Clinics to only accept calls with caller ID for appointment booking
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The Hospital Authority (HA) announced today (July 31) that, to further safeguard patients' personal data and privacy, starting from August 15, the telephone appointment system (TAS) of Family Medicine Clinics (FMCs) will only accept calls from phone numbers with caller ID for appointment booking.
At present, when patients call the TAS of FMCs, they are required to enter personal information by phone, such as their identity card or birth certificate number and year of birth, to verify the patient's identity. The HA has long attached great importance to protecting personal data and privacy. Therefore, starting from August 15, the FMCs will update the TAS, no longer accepting calls without a caller ID. This will enable the system to accurately record the source of each booking call, facilitate verification of patient information when necessary, and help prevent criminals from using phones without caller ID to impersonate patients when making appointments.
A spokesperson said, "The HA specifically reminds patients with episodic diseases who need consultation services to use a phone with caller ID to make appointments in the future. If a patient calls the TAS from a phone without caller ID, the system will automatically play a recorded message reminding the patient to switch to a phone with caller ID and call the FMC again. We estimate that approximately 15 000 patients will need to switch to using phones with caller ID for appointment bookings in the future."
The spokesperson added, "We encourage patients to use the Book FMC function in the HA mobile application, HA Go, which is more convenient and efficient. For chronic disease patients who require a follow-up, their booking arrangements will remain unchanged. After each follow-up visit, the FMC will arrange the next appointment based on the patient's clinical needs, and the patient does not need to call to make an appointment again."
If a patient's mobile phone has been set to hide the caller ID, they should first enable the "Show my caller ID" function in the settings before calling the TAS of an FMC. If a patient's landline has opted for a per-line blocking, they should dial 1357 before making a call to display the phone number once for that specific call , or contact the telecommunications service provider to cancel the arrangement for per-line blocking.
The telephone appointment service is only provided to people who have registered or used services in any hospital or FMC under the HA previously. New patients (i.e. those who have never registered in the HA nor used HA services) are required to bring their original identity documents and visit any FMC in person to register and verify their information before they can use the telephone appointment service. Help desks have been set up in FMCs to assist those who encounter difficulties in using the telephone appointment service.
Ends/Friday, July 31, 2026
Issued at HKT 13:00
Issued at HKT 13:00
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