Some practices may opt to only allow existing patients who have visited the practice before to book certain appointment types or practitioners online. This article will outline how you can adjust this in your HotDoc Dashboard, so that you can stop new patient bookings at your practice. 

 Stop new patient bookings for an appointment type

You may have some appointment types which should only be booked by existing patients who have visited the practice before. There are two ways to adjust this:

• Through the Appointment Types section to change the overall default setting
• Through the Practitioner Setup section to adjust this per practitioner
  
  

How to edit this in 'Appointment Type' settings

1. Log in to your HotDoc Dashboard
   
   
2. On the left side menu, go to Bookings > Appointment Types > Edit next the appointment type you want to adjust:
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll down to the section titled Templates for Practitioners. Untick the checkbox next to Allow new patients to book this appointment type and select the green Save button:
   
   
   
   Please note that changing this setting under Appointment Types will not update it for individual practitioners that have already been created and set up on your Dashboard. Updating this setting under Appointment types will only apply for new practitioners that are added afterwards.
   
   To update the setting for existing practitioner profiles, please follow the steps below.
   
   

How to edit this in 'Practitioner Setup' settings

1. Login to the HotDoc Dashboard.
   
   
2. On the left side menu, go to Bookings > Practitioner Setup > Edit next to the Practitioner's name:
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll down to the Appointment Types section and untick any 'new' appointment types that the practitioner doesn't perform:
   
   

Prevent new patient bookings for a Practitioner

You may have a practitioner at your practice who would prefer to only accept appointments from patients who have attended the practice before.

To achieve this, you will need to select the Tell new patients to call the clinic option.

1.  Login to your HotDoc Dashboard.
   
   
2. On the left side menu, go to Bookings > Practitioner Setup > Edit next to the practitioner's name:
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll down to the Online Bookings Settings section and tick the checkbox next to Tell new patients to call the practice to book:
   
   
   
   
4. When a new patient tries to make a booking with that practitioner, they will be redirected to call the clinic with the following alert:
   
   
   
   Please note: that under the Online Bookings Settings section on the practitioner's profile, if the option Accept Online Bookings for new patients is ticked, the option to Tell new patients to call the clinic will not be shown. If you untick the first option, the second one will automatically appear: