¶ Emergency Slot Management
Emergency appointments are for patients who need urgent dental care, often at short notice. This guide shows you how to find and book an emergency slot on the slot calendar, and what to do when a patient needs help straight away.
Who does this?
Receptionists book emergency appointments at the front desk. Dentists treat them. Emergency slots are set up by practice managers or administrators in Settings → Zones and Settings → Schedules.
¶ What you'll be able to do
- Find free emergency slots for any dentist on any date using the Slot Calendar.
- Book a patient into an emergency slot and record what they told you (their symptoms).
- Spot booked, free, and unavailable slots at a glance using the colour-coded legend.
- Know what to check when no emergency slots appear for a date.
¶ How emergency slots work
Emergency slots live on the Slot Calendar (the Scheduling link in the top menu). They are shown as a red Emergency zone — for example, 20-minute slots kept aside each day for urgent cases. Only Dentists can see and treat emergency patients.
In the Slot column you'll see one of three things:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Red Emergency badge + minutes | A free emergency slot you can book |
| Grey Booked badge | The slot is already taken |
| — (dash) | No schedule on the calendar for that time |
The legend above the calendar shows the zone colours for the day. A grey Booked badge always means the slot is taken.
¶ Book an emergency appointment
¶ 1. Open the Slot Calendar
Click Scheduling in the top menu. The page is called Slot Calendar.
¶ 2. Pick the dentist and date
- In the Provider box, choose a dentist (for example, Mensah, Kofi (Dentist)).
- In the Date box, pick the day you need.
- Click View Slots.
The calendar now shows every slot for that dentist and date.
¶ 3. Find a red Emergency slot
Look down the Slot column for the red Emergency badge. Each emergency slot shows its length in minutes (for example, 20min). The short gaps between slots are kept free for cleaning and decontamination between patients.
¶ 4. Book the slot
Click the green Book button next to the emergency slot. This opens the appointment screen with the dentist, date, and time already filled in.
¶ 5. Complete the booking
- Select Emergency as the appointment type.
- Add the patient — search for them, or register a new patient if this is their first visit.
- In the symptoms box, type what the patient told you (for example, pain in lower right tooth since yesterday). Never include information that identifies the patient beyond what the booking screen asks for — keep details professional and secure.
- If the screen asks, note whether the appointment is NHS or private, and any NHS band.
- Save the appointment.
The system records an AI triage priority for the patient's symptoms (1 = routine, 5 = immediate emergency), which helps the dentist see how urgent the case is.
¶ 6. Confirm the slot is booked
Go back to the Slot Calendar and refresh. The emergency slot you booked now shows a grey Booked badge and Unavailable next to it. Never book a second patient into a slot that shows Booked.
¶ No emergency slots available?
If the calendar shows only dashes or a message saying "No slots available for this date. Create schedule blocks in Settings first":
- Check the zone — ask a practice manager to open Settings → Zones and confirm the practice has an active Emergency zone (red, marked as an emergency zone, with dentists as the allowed provider role).
- Check the schedule — the emergency zone must be attached to a dentist's schedule block for that day in Settings → Schedules.
- Offer the next available day — emergency blocks are often added at short notice, so suggest checking back, or ask a manager to add an emergency block for today.
¶ Staying safe with patient data
- Bookings, symptoms, and triage notes are confidential patient information — only look at them when you need to.
- Log out or lock your screen when you leave the desk.
- Never share login details or leave a patient's details visible on screen.