Call me

Have had another couple of phone calls in the last week from people looking for the orthopaedic registrar. There must be something about the way I say hello that puts the callers on their guard, because they always ask if I’m the right person in a very tentative manner. Surely it’s not because I’m a woman, as there are so many female doctors around these days, even in that most masculine of specialties. Maybe it’s my helpful and friendly demeanor? Or could it be the lack of hammering sounds in the background? Usually I can just tell people that they’ve accidentally dialed the wrong number, and tell them what number they should dial – it’s only one digit different on the internal phone system. But the latest two callers have actually been from outside the hospital, and have been put through to me by the hospital switchboard. So, I’m not sure what to do about it now. Either one of the telephonists is deliberately trolling me, or there’s a mistake somewhere in one of their phone lists. I’m too afraid of them to call them on it, though. The last time I went to the switchboard office in person was as a registrar, when I had accidentally dropped my pager in the toilet and it had stopped working. Oh, the shame! So now I can’t go back until all the telephonists who were there that day have either died or retired. When will I be safe? What a conundrum.