From appointment request to visit

This guide follows a request from the moment a patient sends it to the moment they walk in.

1. The patient asks

In the patient portal (or by message on WhatsApp, if your clinic uses it), the patient picks a preferred date and time and gives a reason. The request arrives as Pending under Appointment requests.

The portal only offers times inside your appointment request hours.

2. Check who it is

Open the request. Under Patient it’s either Linked to a patient record, or Not linked to patient. If it isn’t, Meddesk suggests patients with the Same phone number.

• It’s an existing patient: you’ll pick them when approving.
• It’s someone new: you’ll Register a new patient while approving, with their details filled in.

3. Approve and book

Select Approve, choose the patient in Book for, keep or move the Appointment time, and select Approve and book. See Approve and book.

Meddesk books a Consultation with Medium priority, marks it Confirmed, copies the patient’s reason and notes onto it as notes, and tells the patient.

Can’t offer that time? Either move the time while approving (the patient is told the new time), or Decline with a reason the patient will read.

4. Assign the clinician

An approved request is booked without a clinician. Open the appointment (View appointment) and assign one, and change the type or duration if needed. See Appointment details.

Until it’s assigned, it shows Unassigned on the Clinical desk, and clinicians who only see their own appointments won’t see it.

5. Prepare the patient (optional)

If the patient must prepare (fasting, stopping a medicine), add a Pre-treatment instructions note on the appointment and tick Visible to the patient. It’s included in their appointment emails and shown in the portal. See Notes shared with the patient.

Reminders go out by themselves for Confirmed appointments: by email the day before and on the day, when Send appointment reminders is on in Email settings, and on WhatsApp for patients who agreed to Phone messages, when appointment messages are on.

6. On the day

The appointment appears under Expected on the Clinical desk. When the patient arrives: Check in. From there, follow A visit from booking to checkout.

If something goes wrong

Problem	Fix
Approving fails and the request stays Pending	Nothing was booked and the patient wasn’t told. Read the message (for example the time is now in the past), fix the time, and approve again.
The patient booked for the wrong person in a family	When approving, pick the right patient under Book for: patients sharing the phone number are listed first.
The patient doesn’t get the confirmation email	Check the patient’s email, and that appointment emails are on in Email settings.