Video appointments

Making a service online

Settings → Services & prices → tick Online, by video on the service. Its appointments need no room or equipment, have no address and can't be home visits or classes. Booking works as usual, online and in the diary; patients booking online are told it's a video appointment. Ticking it later doesn't change appointments already booked.

Where the link comes from

Each video appointment uses the first of these it has: 1. Its own Google Meet. If you've connected Google (Settings → Integrations → Google Calendar) and the clinician has a calendar set there, a new Meet is made with the appointment's calendar event as soon as it's booked, so each appointment has its own link. Untick Add a Google Meet to video appointments there to use rooms instead. Nothing extra needs allowing in Google. 2. The clinician's video room. Each clinician pastes their own permanent room (Zoom personal meeting room, Teams, Whereby, Doxy.me…) in Your profile → Your video room. Turn on the app's waiting room so patients wait until you let them in. 3. A link for that appointment. Open the appointment in the diary and paste a link under Video appointment. An appointment with no link yet shows a red camera on the diary card and says so in the panel.

What patients get

The confirmation email has a Join button, the link, short "how to join" steps and a line on checking their camera, microphone and connection before the day. The confirmation and reminder texts and the reminder email carry the link too, and so does the calendar invite. In their account, the booking says By video with a Join button. If you change the wording in Settings → Messages, use {video_link} to place the link yourself; the join steps are still added to the emails, and a text without the link gets it added before the STOP line.

Joining from the diary

Each video appointment shows Join on its diary card and in its panel, with Copy link. From ten minutes before until the end, Join turns into the main button. The call opens in a new tab.

Consent and privacy

Before the first video appointment, ask the patient's consent to be seen by video and note it, as you would for any treatment: what can and can't be assessed on camera, that they can stop at any time, and what happens if the call drops (you'll ring them). Check who they are at the start, and that they're somewhere private; a parent or carer joins for children. Links are sent only to the patient and shown only to your staff: they're never written in logs or the audit log (which records only that a link was set). Use a room with a waiting room, and don't reuse a personal room link for anyone but your own patients.

Recording

Don't record video appointments as a matter of course. If there's a clinical reason, ask the patient's explicit consent first, say why and how long it's kept, keep it in the patient's record, not in Zoom or Google, and note the consent. Google Meet and Zoom announce when recording starts. Your notes, not a recording, are the record of the appointment.

If something goes wrong

If Google can't make a Meet (it's switched off for your Google Workspace, or the clinician's calendar isn't shared with the connected account) the clinician's room or a pasted link is used, and Settings → Integrations says what's wrong. If the patient can't connect, phone them and carry on by phone, or rebook.