Setting up video consultations

Setting up video consultations is a two-part job: make the clinic able to hold them, then create the slots patients can actually book. Both are done from your clinic admin screens. This guide covers the order to do them in and the settings that catch people out.

Step 1 — Confirm video consultation is active

Open Settings and find the video consultation section. When it is active for your clinic you will see it confirmed there, along with a count of how many of your slot rules currently offer video.

If it is not active, nothing else in this guide will work — the join button will not appear for doctors or patients, and anyone who tries will be told video consultation is not enabled for the clinic.

Step 2 — Create a video slot rule

This is the step people miss. Making the clinic capable of video consultations does not create anything for a patient to book. You have to add slots.

Go to your slot rules and create one as normal — doctor, days, session timings, appointment length, quotas — but set the consultation mode to video consultation rather than walk-in.

A few decisions worth thinking about:

• Keep video sessions separate from walk-in sessions. A doctor cannot be in a video call and in front of a patient at the same time, so give video its own block of time rather than mixing modes in one session.
• Mind the online quota. As with any slot rule, this decides how many of the seats the internet may book. Video consultations are usually booked online, so a low quota here will make your video slots look unavailable.
• Consider the appointment length. Remember the room stays open for 40 minutes after the scheduled time; slots much shorter than your real consultation length will cause overlap.

Once the rule is saved, slots are generated forward from it and appear on your booking page.

Step 3 — Check the doctors are ready

Two things are easy to miss and both only surface with a patient waiting:

• Signature uploaded. A doctor cannot sign any prescription until their signature image is on their profile. Ask each doctor to do this before their first video clinic.
• Registration details correct. The doctor's name, qualification and registration number are displayed to the patient during the call, because the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines require the patient to be able to identify the practitioner. Check they are right.

Step 4 — Decide about digital prescriptions

Digital prescriptions are controlled separately from video consultations, and separately again for each kind of visit.

Under Clinic Settings → Digital prescriptions there are two toggles: one for video consultations and one for walk-in visits. Turning it on for walk-in does not turn it on for video.

If you want doctors to prescribe during video calls, switch on the video consultation toggle. If you leave it off, the call works but there is no prescription pad in it.

What patients will experience

Once slots exist, patients book a video consultation the same way as any other appointment. They then get:

• A confirmation SMS containing a one-tap link to join the call.
• A reminder SMS shortly before the appointment with the same link.
• A join button on their appointment, both in the clinic's app and on the clinic's website.

The call opens 15 minutes before the scheduled time and closes 40 minutes after it.

One point to brief your front desk on: the SMS link opens the consultation without asking the patient to sign in. It is limited to that one room and expires with the appointment, but patients should be told not to forward it.

Common setup problems

Related articles

• Slot rules and schedules
• Running a video consultation
• Video consultations at the front desk