We have now added the option for patients to be able to choose the date and time of any follow up appointment. If they normally pay for treatments, then they will be able to make a follow up appointment from their patient portal and pay at the same time. For those patients that are funded by the NHS or belong to a private clinic, their clinic will continue to cover the costs of any ongoing treatment unless the appointment relates to a ‘self-funded’ treatment.
Under the new scheme, patients will receive an email from their doctor or nurse to arrange a follow up appointment. From there, they will be asked to log in to the patient portal and click Make Follow Up Appointment on the right hand side of the dashboard. Once the appointment has been approved, the patient will receive further details on how to attend.
Notifying a patient
To notify a patient that they should make a follow-up appointment, check the “Notify patient to make a follow up appointment” box when creating a new note.
Before sending a follow up notification
- Check that the patient’s principal clinician is correctly assigned. This can also be changed to the patient’s nurse or therapist, whichever one will be undertaking the consultation.
- Check that the treatment that the consultation will cover has been correctly assigned to the patient.
- Check the patient principal clinician (or whoever this may have been changed to) is correctly linked to the clinic that is offering this treatment.
- Check that the patient’s principal clinician is able to offer this treatment.
Terminology
- A PUK patient pays for all treatments and billable items.
- A clinic patient does not pay for any treatment or billable items unless that treatment or item belongs to a clinic that is self funded.
- A self funded clinic is a clinic where any treatment or billable item associated with it will be paid for by the patient.