You can set the number of working hours after which a patient should call the practice if they haven't received a response from you.
This will be displayed to patients after they have submitted a request, so that - if they haven't been contacted by you before those hours have elapsed - they know how long they should wait before telephoning you themselves.
This number of hours should not be the amount of time it will take to completely resolve their request. Instead, it should instead be the amount of time you will take to initially respond to their request.
For example, your initial response could be a simple holding message from a receptionist (and could be a template message you have created for your practice). For example:
- 'Thank you for contacting us, a GP will respond this afternoon'
- 'Thank you for your message, as this a routine request a GP will contact you next Wednesday morning. Please expect a message or telephone call from a withheld number'.
For more information on how to spread demand across different days, read this article.
For information on how quickly to initially reply to patients, read this article.