Archive and restore a patient

When you delete a patient in Clinicify, their record is archived rather than erased straight away. It disappears from your Patients list, but anything that has to be kept by law is held until its retention period ends. Until then, the owner can restore it.

Before you start

• Owners and practitioners can archive a patient. Receptionists can’t: they don’t see the Patient actions menu on a patient’s record.
• Only the owner can restore an archived patient, or delete a record that was created in error.

Archive a patient

1. Select Patients in the left sidebar and open the patient’s record.
2. Select the Patient actions menu (the three dots) next to their name.
3. Select Delete patient.
4. Read the summary. It lists anything linked to the patient that will also be removed, such as appointments, lab results, notes and photos, and tells you when the record will be permanently deleted.
5. Select Archive patient.

When the record is permanently deleted

The dialog shows the date for this patient:

• Patients with clinical records are held until the end of their retention period under CQC and NHS guidance. The record is hidden now and permanently deleted on that date. It can’t be deleted sooner.
• Patients with no clinical history are permanently deleted after a short waiting period, unless you restore them first.

Restore a patient

1. Open the account menu at the bottom of the sidebar and select Clinic settings.
2. Under Data & privacy, select Archived records.
3. Find the patient. Each entry shows when it was archived and the date it will be deleted.
4. Select Restore.

The patient goes back into your Patients list with their records.

Good to know

• Created in error: if you added a patient by mistake, the owner sees a Created in error option in the delete dialog. Ticking it changes the button to Delete permanently: the retention hold is bypassed and the record is permanently deleted after the short waiting period shown in the dialog. Use it only for records that should never have existed, because it’s recorded in the audit trail. See Delete a record created in error.
• Erasure requests: if a patient asks for their data to be erased, their record shows a Process request button to the owner (other roles see that only an owner can process it). It archives the record in the same way, keeping clinical records until their retention date. See Handling patient data and erasure requests.
• Messages stop. An archived patient isn’t sent appointment messages of any kind: no reminders, booking or cancellation messages, video links, forms or aftercare. They also aren’t told when lab results are published. Payment messages, such as receipts and refunds, are still sent.
• Every archive and restore is recorded in your clinic’s audit trail.
• To see how retention periods are worked out, see How long records are kept.