Medical and allied health after hours answering service

A medical after hours answering service answers your practice’s phone when the rooms are closed. Yes AI’s voice agent handles cancellations, rebookings and messages for practitioners and reads out the after hours care options you choose. It gives no clinical advice, and anyone describing an emergency is told to hang up and call 000.

Which practices is this for?

General practices, dental clinics, physiotherapy, chiropractic and podiatry rooms, psychology and counselling practices, and veterinary clinics. What they share is that most calls after closing time are administrative: a patient cancelling tomorrow’s appointment, someone wanting to move a booking, a new patient asking how to enrol, or a message for a practitioner. Those calls currently go to a voicemail that reception works through in the morning, by which time a cancelled slot is often too late to refill.

The safety line comes first

Before anything else is configured, the practice and Yes AI agree on what the agent must never do and what it must always say.

It never gives clinical advice, never says whether a symptom sounds serious, and never suggests a medication, dose or treatment.
The greeting includes an instruction to hang up and call 000 in an emergency.
Phrases your clinicians list, such as chest pain, trouble breathing, unconscious, heavy bleeding or thoughts of self-harm, trigger the 000 instruction straight away, without further questions.
For non-urgent health advice, the agent can give the healthdirect helpline, 1800 022 222, where registered nurses are available 24 hours a day; in Victoria it operates as NURSE-ON-CALL (healthdirect).
Psychology and counselling practices can have the agent give Lifeline’s crisis line, 13 11 14, which Lifeline says is open 24 hours a day (Lifeline).
Veterinary clinics nominate the emergency animal hospital the agent should name.

Your clinicians approve the exact wording of each of these before go-live, and any change to it goes through them as well.

What the agent handles for a practice

Call	What the agent does	Notes
Cancellation	Confirms identity using the checks you set, then cancels or records it	If your booking system is connected, the slot is free before reception arrives
Rebooking	Offers available times when connected to your booking system	Cliniko is a listed integration on the Professional plan
New patient enquiry	Explains services, fees as you list them, and how to book	No assessment of whether the practice suits the patient’s condition
Message for a practitioner	Takes the message and marks it for the right person	The content is recorded, not triaged clinically
Test results	Says results are discussed by the practice and takes a message	Never reads or interprets results
Script or referral request	Takes the request in the way your policy sets	The practice decides what happens next
Animal emergency at a vet clinic	Gives the emergency hospital you nominate	Then logs the call for the morning

How an after hours call to a practice flows

A patient calls after the practice closes, and your phone system sends the call to the agent.
The greeting names the practice, says the patient is speaking with an AI assistant, and gives the 000 instruction.
The agent asks the reason for the call. If the caller uses one of the emergency phrases, it repeats the 000 instruction and ends that line of questioning.
For administrative requests, it confirms identity with the details your policy requires, such as full name and date of birth, before touching any appointment.
It completes the request or takes a message.
A summary goes to the practice inbox, ready for reception at opening time. Clinical details stay out of SMS alerts.

Cliniko and other practice systems

Yes AI names Cliniko as an integration on its Professional plan. Cliniko’s official API includes patients, available times and individual appointments (Cliniko API documentation), with operations to create, update and cancel an appointment (Cliniko, individual appointments). That is what lets an agent rebook a patient after hours instead of only taking a message. For dental, veterinary or other practice management software, the connection is made through that system’s API where it has one; ask during the quote whether yours qualifies.

For AI work beyond the phones, such as patient recalls and reducing no-shows, see aihealthcare.au.

RACGP Standards and after hours information

Criterion GP1.3 of the RACGP Standards for general practices (5th edition) expects practices to tell patients how they can access after-hours care, and it lists an out-of-hours phone message as one way to do that (criterion GP1.3, AGPAL copy). An AI agent can give that information on every call, including the name and number of your after hours provider or medical deputising service. It is not after-hours medical care itself: it does not see or assess patients. The RACGP has also published a 6th edition of the Standards, so check which edition your accreditation is assessed against.

How is patient information protected?

Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (OAIC guide to health privacy), and the Act covers health service providers whatever their turnover (OAIC, small business). Australian Privacy Principle 11 requires reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss (OAIC APP quick reference). In Victoria, the Health Privacy Principles in the Health Records Act 2001 also apply to health information handled in the state (Victorian Department of Health).

In practice, that means:

collect only what reception needs to act: name, date of birth, contact number and the reason for the call in general terms
keep symptom details out of SMS alerts and email subject lines
ask Yes AI where summaries and any recordings are stored, who can access them, and how long they are kept
add after hours AI answering to your practice privacy policy and new patient information

What it is not

It is not a nurse triage line or a medical deputising service.
It does not replace your formal after hours arrangements; it tells patients what those arrangements are.
It should not be the only contact for patients in acute mental distress. Route those calls to crisis services, and to your on-call clinician if you have one.

For an on-call clinician setup, see urgent call escalation. Practices open long hours may prefer 24 hour call answering, and common patient questions are covered in after hours answering questions and answers. Plan costs are in the cost guide, and you can ask for a demo with your practice’s details.