How patients choose a practitioner when booking online

When your clinic has more than one practitioner taking online bookings, the patient is asked who they would like to see before any appointment times are shown. Who treats them is their decision, not a default.

What the patient sees

On the booking page, after choosing a treatment, the patient sees Choose your practitioner with each practitioner listed by name and photo, followed by I don't mind. Nothing is pre-selected. Once they choose, the calendar shows that practitioner's available times. Choosing I don't mind shows every time any of the listed practitioners is free and assigns whoever is available for the slot they pick.

Their choice travels with them through the rest of the booking, so paging through the calendar or going back a step never loses it.

Why nothing is pre-selected

If "any available" were already ticked, a patient who scrolled straight to the times would be quietly assigned whoever was free soonest and only find out in the chair. Making the choice explicit costs one tap and removes the surprise.

Clinics with one practitioner

If only one practitioner is eligible for the treatment and location selected, the question is not asked at all: the patient goes straight to the times.

Who appears on the list

Each person's card under Booking profiles in Settings, Team has two tick boxes:

• Takes appointments: they have a column in your diary and can hold appointments.
• Patients can book them online: they are shown on your booking page. This needs Takes appointments to be on.

Someone with Takes appointments ticked but not Patients can book them online, such as a prescriber, can still be booked by your team from the diary. They are not offered to patients booking themselves in, and that includes I don't mind: patients are only ever given times with the practitioners on the list.

If you have more than one location, patients booking at a location only see the team who work there (the Works at ticks on each person's card).

The list is also limited to active practitioners assigned to the treatment. For a multi-treatment visit, a practitioner must be able to provide every chosen treatment. If a treatment has no stored assignments, all active practitioners with both booking ticks are eligible.

Takes appointments also counts towards your monthly practitioner seats; Patients can book them online controls public visibility.

Changing the order

The clinic owner can choose the order practitioners appear in. Go to Settings, Team, find Practitioner order, and use Move up and Move down beside each name. The change saves straight away (you will see Order saved.).

The same order is used for the practitioner list on your booking page and for the columns in your diary. Practitioners without a chosen position follow the positioned ones, with names used to break ties.