Last week I had cause to phone a hospital ward to confirm an appointment to visit a patient. The phone was answered quickly and I explained I was calling to confirm a visit at 11a.m. and would that still be convenient. The person who answered the phone said "No, definitely not." I asked the reason for that and was told that the decision had been passed on by someone else. I asked to speak to the someone else. The man passed the phone to someone else and said, "Can you finish this call for me?" The next poor man clearly had no idea how to finish the call and abruptly rang off.
Calling back sometime later, the phone was answered by a different person on a different ward. I questioned why the number I had been given for the ward I wanted to visit, was the same number as their ward and was told, "We've taken the handset to a different ward." In the end I just turned up at the hospital and took my chances.
Patients answering ward phones probably isn't a brilliant idea. Patients making up their own answers to inquiries is less than helpful. It's such a relief that when I call on God he hasn't wandered off and left me to someone incompetent to answer.
