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Contacting patients with BT phone lines and ‘Call Protect’

Patients with a BT landline may be knowingly or unknowingly opted into a service called ‘Call Protect’ which prevents some practice phone systems calling them properly.

Affected practices will find that calls to patients using call protect are not accepted and the caller is asked to leave a message on the 1572 system. Patients may not be aware that there is a message, or how to retrieve the message, particularly if they have been automatically opted into the Call Protect system.

Customers may not even be aware that they have been enrolled onto this service and would have to update the ‘block list’ either via the BT portal or by contacting BT and request that the practice number is removed from the block list.

Practices experiencing this problem should escalate it to their telephone provider, who should in turn raise it with BT. As an interim they may wish to consider:

• Sending an MJOG message to all those patients with a mobile number, to alert them to this issue.
• Alerting patients via notices in the waiting room, on the practice website and on the practice answerphone system.
• Using a mobile phone to contact patients when an initial call to their landline from a phone in the practice is not accepted.

Last updated : 22 Feb 2022

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