A reminder for those Near Me services that run reception-type Waiting Areas: those reception waiting areas must be staffed if there are any appointments scheduled over the festive period where the reception Waiting Area’s link has been given to your patients.
Tip for Service Providers: if you think an expected caller may be stuck in an unstaffed reception type Waiting Area, and you have either the caller’s mobile number or email address, you can send them a Consult Now link from the platform, providing them almost instant access to a Near Me call with you, should they follow the link.
Except for the compulsory holidays for us of Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th December then Wednesday 1st & Thursday 2nd January, our service desk will be running as normal Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18:00 and can be reached at vc.support@nhs.scot or 01224 816666.
On a related note, and we’ve had a couple of support calls on this recently, if your service runs out-of-hours cover from Waiting Areas or intends running group sessions in the evenings or over weekends, you should check the Video Call Access Hours (Providers) setting for those Waiting Areas. For example, if your waiting area’s opening hours are set to 09:00 – 17:00, Monday – Friday, a standard Service Provider will not be able to change Waiting Areas opening times to take calls outside of those hours. Consult Now availability is the same as your Waiting Area’s opening hours. We’d recommend setting the access hours to 24/7 to avoid problems. This brief, mute video shows you how to check and return to 24/7 availability if something else has been set.