Staff schedules

Staff Schedules records when each person works and when they’re away. Meddesk uses it to:

warn you when you book someone outside their hours, on their day off or while they’re on leave;
show the whole team’s week on one page;
optionally let patients choose a practitioner in the patient portal and only offer that person’s free times.

Schedules never block a booking. They only warn, so you can still book an exception.

Set someone’s schedule

Open the staff member’s profile and the Schedule tab. Time off is at the top, since it changes often; Weekly hours is below it.

Time off

Choose Add time off and set:

From and To for whole days (leave To empty for a single day), or tick Part of a day for a few hours on one date.
A Reason (optional). Colleagues see it when they book this person.

Current time off is marked Now, finished time off Past. Use the pencil and bin icons to edit or delete. The tab lists time off from the last 90 days onwards.

Weekly hours

The week is drawn as a timeline: each day shows its shifts as blocks on a shared hour scale, with the day’s total hours on the right. Above it you see the Working days, Hours per week and the Working day (earliest start to latest end).

Turn a day on or off with the switch next to its name. A day that’s off is shaded and marked Day off.
Click a working day’s timeline to open its hours. Pick the start and end of each shift, in 30-minute steps.
Choose Add shift for a day with a break, for example 09:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00. Shifts on the same day can’t overlap. Use the cross to remove an extra shift.
Use Saturday’s hours on every working day (named after the first working day) copies that day’s hours to all the other working days.

People without permission to change schedules see the same timeline, without the switches.

Choose Save hours to keep your changes, or Discard changes to undo them.

A staff member with no hours at all has no schedule: Meddesk shows no warnings for them and doesn’t offer them in the patient portal.

The team’s week

Open Schedules in the menu (under Staff & Administration). Every staff member who can be assigned to appointments is listed with the current week:

each day shows their hours and a small bar of the day;
On leave, or the hours of part-day leave, is shown in amber;
Off marks a day they don’t work;
people without hours show No schedule set.

Use the arrows to move a week back or forward, and This week to return. Choose a name to open that person’s Schedule tab.

Warnings when booking

Wherever you pick a clinician for a time (step 3 of booking, assigning a clinician on an appointment, and approving a portal request), a clinician who isn’t available gets a Conflict badge. Select them to see why:

“On leave at this time” (with the reason, if one was given);
“Doesn’t work on this day”;
“Outside working hours”, with their hours that day.

These appear together with the existing warning about overlapping appointments.

Patients choosing a practitioner

Open Settings › Patient portal (needs System administrator). Below the portal’s own settings, the Choosing a practitioner card has Let patients choose a practitioner in the patient portal. Turn it on; it saves straight away. The card only appears while Staff Schedules is turned on.

When it’s on, the portal’s Request appointment page starts with Choose a practitioner:

Any practitioner works as before, with the clinic’s opening hours.
Choosing a practitioner shows only the days and times that person is free: within their hours, not on leave, and not already booked. Times are offered in 30-minute steps.

Only clinicians who can be assigned to appointments and have a schedule are listed. Patients see their name and specialization, never their contact details.

The chosen practitioner appears on the request as Preferred practitioner. When you approve it, they’re already selected as the Clinician, and you can change them. See Appointment requests.

Permissions

Permission	What it allows	Given by default to
View staff schedules	See everyone’s schedule and the Schedules page.	Doctor, Nurse, Receptionist, Manager
Manage staff schedules	Change hours and time off.	Manager

Everyone can see their own Schedule tab, even without these permissions.