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Appointments

Online appointment booking

For patients to see available appointment slots in the App, the practice must first make them available for online booking in the clinical system.

We recommend that if an appointment can be booked over the phone, you should consider making it bookable online through the App. We recognise that recently practices have had to change the way they book appointments. The App is here to support you through these changes.

Examples of appointments a practice might make available online include:

  • routine pre-bookable appointments
  • triage appointments
  • healthcare assistant (HCA) appointments
  • blood tests
  • cervical screening (smear tests)
  • asthma/COPD appointments

The more types of appointments you can make available to book online, the more people will use the App and the more time this will save for reception staff.

However, it's up to each practice to make decisions about online booking that best suit how you work. It is expected that practices will triage patients before offering them a bookable appointment. You can use features in your clinical systems to support your processes.

These can include:

  • using embargos, so that appointments become available online at the same time as your phone lines open
  • limiting the number of appointments patients can have booked at one time - but be aware this will cap the number of total appointments, whether they are booked online, over the phone or in person
  • if it's available in the system you use, asking the patient to specify a reason for booking, which can then help reception staff triage and contact any patient who has booked an appointment that's not suitable


The methods vary in different clinical systems. You can get support from your system supplier. We have provided brief guidelines on making your appointments available online within specific clinical systems.


The NHS Wales App will show any appointments you have made available for online booking within the next 16 weeks.


If you use tools such as eConsult, put a link to this in your configurable messages.


Appointments - Do and don'ts

DO

  • make it clear if the appointment is a phone or online appointment – for example “phone appointment – general” – remembering that phone appointments must be set up as a separate “location”
  • use simple language – the average reading age in the UK is 9 years
  • make the purpose of the appointment clear
  • state which groups the appointment slot is for – for example “over 50s – winter flu jabs”

DO NOT

  • use clinical terms – think “blood test“ rather than “phlebotomy” (see A to Z of NHS health writing)
  • use terms such as “default”, “internet” or “embargo” – as they make no sense to patients
  •  include practice member name, time or location – these are displayed separately

 

Clinical names – Do and don'ts

DO

  • include the gender of the practice member in the name field using (M) or (F) – research shows this is important to patients

DO NOT

  • include the practice member’s name in appointment names – this causes confusion as the clinician’s name is displayed separately

 

Check and change the names of your appointments

How you change the names depends on your clinical system.


EMIS: instructions for naming appointments


In EMIS patients can see the Session Name and Slot Type.

To change the Session Name:

  1. In the Appointment Book tab, click on “Create Session” and then choose “Load from template”.
  2. Edit the Session Name and click “Save as template”.
  3. If this session template is already in use, a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to update existing sessions – choose “Yes” to rename them.


To change the slot type:

  1. In the Appointment Book tab, click on “Appts Config” and choose “Slot Types”.
  2. Click on the slot type you want to edit, and click “Edit”.
  3. Change the Name and click OK, and then OK again.

 

Vision: instructions for naming appointments

The patient will see the name of the slot type in the NHS Wales App, not the VOS (Vision Online Services) name, so you need to check the names of the slot types and amend them if necessary.

  1. From Management Tools, select Control Panel > File Maintenance > Online.
  2. Under Services select Configure Appointments.
  3. Select the Slot Type tab.
  4. Double click on the slot type you want to update.
  5. Edit the name of the slot type.
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