Frequently Asked Questions
How do I receive patient introductions?
- During Business Hours:
- Calls will be put-through to your receptionist direct from our call centre after the patient confirms they wish to make an appointment and you clinic is identified as convenient. In these cases our call centre consultant will first speak to your receptionist and introduce the call as being a patient referral from the Appointment Line;
- If your receptionist is not able to take the call (either because engaged or otherwise busy), the patient details will be sent to you by email or fax (your preference). In this case our patient promise is that you are able to return the call within 30 minutes.
- An automatic confirmation email will be sent to the practice email with patient details.
- After Hours:
- Patient details will be emailed or faxed to you (your preference). In this case our patient promise is that you are able to return the call within by 10 a.m. the following business day
- If your clinic cannot ordinarily operate to the levels of efficiency we promise to customers, please do not complete the application process.
What if a patient is put through to the clinic but does not book or books but does not turn-up?
Our default procedure is to charge you for each call put through (or for patient details emailed or faxed). However, if the patient does not book or does not turn up for an appointment, simply advise us of the need for a "reversal" by emailing or faxing us with the patient name and reference number (which you will be given) and we will amend your statement to ensure that you are not charged.
What if I cannot take patients for a period because I am fully booked or going on holiday?
Simply email us to advise when you are unable to take patient appointments and we will temporarily suspend your record from our referral database.
What if I wish to cease taking patient referrals?
You are at liberty to resign from the Appointment Line service at any time. As soon as your email reaches us we will retire your record from the database and you will receive no additional patient referrals. In this case you will only be billed for referrals made prior to your resignation.
How will I be billed?
In the first instance you will be billed by a monthly invoice emailed to you with a statement of referrals made during the month (and not reversed by you for failure to book or turn up). Payment terms are 14 days. If you have any query about the accuracy of the statement simply email us and we will issue an amended statement.
When can direct debit arrangements be established to make the payment process easier?
After we have sent you patients for a couple of months we will propose that you take advantage of a direct-debit arrangement, guaranteed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The process will be the same, i.e., we will send you a statement by email and you will have a period of time during which to query the statement. If we have not received any query we will then direct debit your account, rather then requiring you to make a payment by electronic transfer or by cheque. This process will reduce administration on both sides.
What if I disagree with the billing statement?
Simply email us to advise us of the error and we will either answer the query or amend the bill.
How can I list my website on your websites, e.g., physiotherapy-help.co.uk, backpain-help.co.uk and sportsinjury-help.co.uk websites?
We have a page on each of our websites devoted to promoting the quality of our referral partners; so if you have a website we would be very pleased to showcase it via our website. The benefit of setting up a link from our website will be increased visitor traffic and a higher page ranking from Google (high quality links into your website increase your status). In return we would ask that you place a link to our sites somewhere on your own site - it need not be prominent. We can email you the html code fragment to set up the link which will be a trivial task for you or your webmaster.