Help / Clinics and appointments

Short-notice appointments

Settings, Fees and quotes, Consultation invoicing; a free time's menu on the schedule on Start; the patient portal, Short-notice appointments.

Where the organisation has switched on Offer short-notice appointments under Consultation invoicing, a patient can ask in the portal to be told when a consultation comes free with one of their practitioners. They keep a card on Stripe's own page, then tick for each practitioner, beside words that say the card is charged the consultation's fee only if they choose to accept. The tick and those words are kept with the answer, and unticking stops it.

When a time comes free, open it on the schedule on Start and press Offer at short notice. Everyone who ticked for the practitioner running that time, and has a card kept, is told in the portal, and on their phone where they have notifications on. Nobody else is told, whoever is free, because a patient who wants one surgeon has no use for another's cancellation.

The first patient to press Accept has the time, and the others are told it has gone. A patient who has already paid for a later consultation is not charged again: that payment moves to the earlier time, and the later appointment stays on their diary as their second consultation. Anyone else is charged the consultation's fee from the card they kept, and the invoice is marked paid. If the card is refused, the patient is told, the time is left free and the offer stays open for the next person.

The fee is the practitioner's consultation price under Consultation invoicing, so a practitioner with no price there cannot be offered. A second consultation is not invoiced by this. Nothing is refunded by it: a refund, if one is ever needed, is made by hand.