How patient questions work
- Everyone
On this page
Patients can send your clinic a question from the Questions page of their portal. Clinicify’s AI sorts each question and decides who should answer it. Anything about the patient themselves goes to a clinician, and nothing personal or clinical reaches a patient until a clinician has approved it.
What the patient does
The patient signs in, selects Questions and types into Ask a question (between 10 and 1,000 characters), then selects Send question.
The first time, they’re shown a short explanation: their question is processed by an AI system, general and admin questions may get an automated answer, and personal clinical questions are reviewed by a clinician before any reply is sent. They tick I understand and consent to this processing. No question is accepted without that consent. The explanation was updated in September 2026, so every patient is asked to agree once more.
Turning questions off for a patient
Patients can opt out by contacting the clinic. An owner or practitioner then clears Patient can ask questions in their portal under Patient questions on the patient’s Profile tab. The patient’s portal hides the question box and asks them to contact the clinic directly (or call 999 or NHS 111 for urgent help). Their past questions and answers stay visible.
The four routes a question can take
Every question is sorted within seconds of being sent.
| Route | What it covers | Who answers | What the patient sees |
|---|---|---|---|
| General question | ”What is ferritin?”, “What does TSH measure?” The answer is the same for everyone. | The AI, automatically | A reply headed Automated answer, ending with a line saying it’s general information and to speak to their clinician about their own results |
| Admin question | Appointments, payments, “have my results come back?” | An automatic reply, not written by the AI | A reply headed Automated answer, with a link to the right page of their portal (bookings, treatments or results) and a suggestion to contact the clinic if they can’t find what they need |
| Clinical question | Anything about the patient’s own health, results, symptoms, treatment or medication | A clinician, starting from an AI draft | Your message has been forwarded to your clinician, and they will respond shortly. Then the clinician’s reply, headed From your clinician and signed with their name |
| Not about health or the clinic | A recipe, a joke, homework | A fixed reply, not written by the AI | A reply headed Automated answer, saying the service is for health and care questions, inviting them to send it again if they meant to ask about their health |
When there’s any doubt about which route applies, the question goes to a clinician.
Safety checks on every question
Two checks run on every question as well as the AI’s own sorting, and both can only send a question towards a clinician:
- Personal detail check. A question that mentions the patient (“my”, “I”) together with a blood test name or a result with a unit goes to a clinician, even if it looks like a general question.
- Urgent symptoms check. Words that suggest something urgent, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, facial swelling or thoughts of self-harm, send the question to a clinician. The patient also sees straight away: If your symptoms are severe, sudden, or getting worse, call 999 or NHS 111 now. Do not wait for a reply here.
See What the AI will never answer on its own for the full list.
What your team sees
Clinical questions appear in the Q&A Queue in the left sidebar, and under Q&A queue on your dashboard. Everyone on your team is emailed when a new one arrives, unless they’ve turned off Patient question awaiting review in My settings > Notifications. The email carries only the patient’s initials, never the question.
Each question has a 24-hour target. The queue puts the most urgent first and marks questions that are nearly due or Overdue.
General and admin questions don’t go into the queue. You can see them, and their replies, on the patient’s Timeline tab, labelled General question or Admin question.
When a clinician replies
The patient is sent an email or text (depending on their settings) saying their clinician has replied. The message doesn’t include the question or the answer: the patient signs in to the portal to read it.
To learn how to review and send a reply, see Review and approve answers in the Q&A queue.
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Related articles
- Review and approve answers in the Q&A queue Read a patient's clinical question and the AI's draft reply, then approve it, edit it or write your own before it's sent under your name.
- What the AI will never answer on its own The kinds of patient question that always go to a clinician, the urgent words that trigger escalation, and what the AI is allowed to answer.
- Patient questions: privacy and safety What the AI sees when a patient asks a question, what's kept, who is told, and how urgent questions are handled. Answers for clinics and patients.