The Hospital Authority will uniformly display incoming call numbers starting with 18285 or 18286 from tomorrow.

Starting tomorrow, the Hospital Authority will uniformly display caller IDs with the initial numbers 18285 or 18286. All operational units under the Authority, including public hospitals, family medicine clinics, specialist outpatient clinics, medical institutions, and the Hospital Authority’s head office, will gradually switch to a set of numbers ranging from 1828 500 to 1828 599 or 1828 600 to 1828 699 for caller ID display purposes. This is expected to be completed by the end of June.

All new numbers will be used only for caller ID display for calls made by the Hospital Authority to help the public identify incoming calls. When citizens return the call using the displayed number, they will generally hear a telephone answering recording prompt informing them which public hospital or clinic the call is from. If necessary, staff will contact them again later. The dialed number will not be routed to the relevant public hospital or clinic.

As for the telephone numbers used to contact various operational units under the Hospital Authority, they will remain unchanged. Citizens may browse the Hospital Authority’s website to check the relevant numbers to call. In addition, based on operational needs, some operational units will still retain direct lines or contact citizens using mobile phones.

A spokesperson for the Hospital Authority emphasized that the purpose of switching to caller ID numbers beginning with 18285 or 18286 is to enable citizens to clearly identify calls from the Hospital Authority, thereby reducing the chance that they will refuse to answer calls due to too many promotional calls or concerns about phone scams, and preventing them from missing emergency calls from emergency departments or wards.

The Hospital Authority reminds citizens to be careful to verify the identity of callers when answering calls from public hospitals. If the Hospital Authority needs to contact citizens, it will generally call them directly through staff and provide relevant information to verify identity. Citizens should not provide any personal information to calls from unknown numbers to avoid privacy leakage. If they suspect they have received a scam call, they should seek help from the police.