Out-of-hours calls for private clinics

Private clinics divert evening and weekend enquiry calls to cover that answers in the clinic name, takes booking details and escalates only what you treat as urgent, without putting a clinician on every ring.

• New patients who want to book, often for the first appointment you can offer.
• Existing patients cancelling or moving tomorrow's appointment.
• Questions about prices, insurers, parking or what to bring.
• Patients with a question after treatment, such as an aesthetics patient about aftercare.
• Occasionally, someone who is unwell and needs urgent medical help, which a private clinic's phone line is not the right place for.

The first two groups have a direct cost if they go unanswered. A new patient who can't book may book elsewhere, and a cancellation you only hear about at 9am is a slot you can't refill. Our guide to what missed calls cost a private clinic shows how to put a number on both.

That they've reached your clinic, who or what is answering, what happens next and when. A caller who knows they'll hear back at 8.30am is usually content to wait.

1. 1A greeting in your clinic's name, and a clear statement if the call is answered by an automated receptionist.
2. 2Whether they're a new or existing patient.
3. 3What they'd like to be seen for, in their own words.
4. 4When they're free, and whether they're insured or paying themselves.
5. 5Either a booking into an agreed slot or a call-back time your team will keep.
6. 6Your clinic's own instructions for anything urgent, given exactly as written.

Keep it short. A patient ringing at 8pm about a sore knee doesn't need a long conversation, just confidence that someone will deal with it.

With instructions written in advance, and a clear route to NHS services for anything your clinic can't deal with at that hour. Whoever answers shouldn't decide how serious something is.

The NHS says NHS 111 can direct people to the best place to get help when their GP can't be reached or is closed, by phone, online or in the NHS App, and that in an emergency they should call 999 or go to A&E. That's England; in Scotland it's NHS 24 on 111, and Wales has NHS 111 Wales. If you see patients from elsewhere, use the services that apply to them.

If your clinic gives patients an aftercare number, decide who holds it overnight and what happens to those calls. Write that down, test it, and make sure the person on call knows they're on call.

Four, and most clinics combine two of them.

A good voicemail greeting is still worth having, with your hours and the NHS routes for urgent help. It just shouldn't be the only thing a new patient hears. Our clinic answering service guide compares the options in more depth, and our general guide to out-of-hours call answering covers the same choice for any business.

Yes, if your appointment types are simple and your diary is online. A patient who books at 9pm is one who isn't still searching at 9.05pm.

Limit it to what's safe to book without a practitioner's input, such as follow-ups and initial assessments in set slots. For anything that needs triage, take details and call back. Evening bookings also mean more appointments to remind people about, which our guide to clinic cancellations and no-shows covers.

With call forwarding. You keep your clinic's number and divert calls after closing time, or whenever nobody answers, to whatever covers them.

• Most business phone systems can divert on a schedule, such as 6pm to 8am and all weekend.
• A no-answer divert sends calls on after a few rings, which also covers treatment sessions and lunch.
• Mobiles can divert when busy, unanswered or switched off.

Our guide to forwarding business calls walks through the settings. Then test it: ring your own number one evening as a new patient, a cancellation, someone asking whether their symptom is serious, and someone who is upset, and listen to each call.

From nothing for voicemail to the cost of a member of staff for evening reception. In between, a human service usually charges per call or per minute, and an AI receptionist usually charges a flat monthly fee.

Extra reception hours are the most expensive route, because you pay for the hours whether the phone rings or not. Our guide to what a clinic front desk really costs works through pay, National Insurance, pension and cover. Ringzel is from £99 a month with unlimited calls, so a busy month costs the same as a quiet one.