What to change
Use the service names patients have already read and explain genuinely ambiguous options. Preserve an appropriate uncertainty route so people do not need professional knowledge to contact the practice.
A worked example
Illustrative example
A practice replaces an internal appointment code with the public name initial consultation. A separate option lets visitors ask about appointment choices when they have not been advised which service to use.
Put it into practice
Ask a new reader to move from a service page into the form without guidance. Their selection should follow from the page's explanation, not from knowing how reception categorises the service internally.
Keep the selected service visible if the enquiry begins from a service page. Asking visitors to identify it again can introduce a mistake after the page has already established the context.
What to agree before publishing
Match the form's choices to the service names used in the pages that lead to it. Where the practice's booking system requires an internal label, provide the connection in plain language rather than making patients decode it. Ask someone to move from a service description into the enquiry without guidance. Their selection should follow naturally from what they have just read. If the form already knows the starting service, make that context visible and avoid asking the visitor to identify it again unnecessarily.
How to check the result
A person arriving from a service page can recognise the same option without translating internal terminology.
A mistake to avoid
Do not force visitors to select a diagnosis or clinical category just to send an ordinary practical enquiry.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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