Question
A patient has booked an appointment but is unable to cancel this via HotDoc. What could be causing this?
Solution
If a patient is unable to cancel their appointment via the HotDoc app or an appointment reminder, this is usually due to cancellation settings that have been configured at one or more levels. These may include:
Practice-wide reminder settings
Individual practitioner reminder settings (either for a specific period or permanently)
Appointment-type reminder settings (for example, Standard or Care Plan appointments)
Reminder-type settings (such as Regular, Immediate, or Early reminders)
Some of these settings are not visible in the HotDoc Dashboard. However, if enabled, they can prevent patients from cancelling appointments through their reminder or their HotDoc account.
In most cases, these settings can be reviewed and managed within the HotDoc Dashboard.
In rare circumstances, additional restrictions may be applied at a system level, which are not visible in the Dashboard.
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In this article |
How to view practice-wide reminder settings?
Practice-wide automatic cancellation settings are located in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Settings:
If this setting is unticked, any cancellation requests from patients will be sent through to the Sidebar for you to manually approve or decline.
For further information, please see: How can I set up automatic or manual processing of bookings and cancellations?
How to view individual practitioner reminder settings?
1. Cancellation settings per practitioner are found in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Practitioner Setup, then selecting Edit next to the practitioner whose settings you wish to change:
2. Scroll down to Online Bookings Settings and enter the time frame that patients can cancel their appointment before it starts:
3. Press the Save button at the bottom right of the screen to keep any changes made.
How to view specific appointment type settings?
1. Cancellation settings per appointment type are located in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Appointment Types, then selecting Edit next to the appointment type you wish to add the settings to:
2. Scroll down to Link to **Practice Management Software** Appointment Type and select Yes or No under Accept cancellations online and via Reminder:
When set to Yes, the patient will be able to cancel this appointment type.
When set to No, the patient will not be able to cancel this appointment type, unless they call the practice directly.
3. Press the Save button at the bottom of the screen to keep any changes.
How to view specific reminder type settings?
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Please view the following article which explains how you can see these settings for each appointment reminder in your Dashboard: How do I enable or disable appointment types from being cancelled via an appointment reminder? |
FAQs
Can patients cancel appointments booked by reception?
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No. Appointments that have been booked by reception cannot be cancelled via the HotDoc app. These need to be cancelled directly with your practice.
My practice uses Best Practice Jade SP2 or later. Why can’t our patients cancel Recall appointments?
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For practices using HotDoc integrated with Best Practice (Jade SP2 or later), Recall appointments cannot be cancelled by patients via HotDoc. This is due to a restriction introduced in Best Practice, which prevents third-party systems from cancelling Recall appointments.
When a patient attempts to cancel one of these appointments, the request is sent to your Sidebar so it can be reviewed and manually actioned by the practice.
What should we do if all settings appear correct but patients still can’t cancel?
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If all relevant reminder and cancellation settings appear correct and patients are still unable to cancel their appointments, please contact HotDoc Support so the booking can be investigated further.