A receptionist for the clinic that's usually one osteo and a phone

A realistic call, the way Giday runs it in restricted mode:

Giday: Giday, you've reached Hills Osteopathy — Verity speaking, on a recorded line. How can I help you?

Caller: Hi, I've been referred by my GP for some lower back trouble — do you take new patients?

Giday: We do. A first appointment is an hour — I've got Tuesday at 10 or Thursday at 2:30. Which suits?

Caller: Thursday. Will one session fix it, do you think?

Giday: That's one for the osteo rather than me, but they'll talk you through it on Thursday. Bring the referral along. Can I take your name and the best mobile for the confirmation?

An initial consultation in the calendar, a note that the patient has a referral, a text to the caller, a text and email to the clinic. The back was heard, not written down.

Tick yes to the health question at signup and the receptionist runs in restricted mode from its first call. Concretely:

• It won't discuss anything clinical. What's wrong, whether osteo will help, what a treatment involves, or what anything costs if that isn't on your published list — it lets the caller finish, says kindly that it isn't the right one for that side, and gets them to the clinic.
• Clinical detail is never written down. A message about a health matter records only that the caller would like a call back, plus their name and number — and whether they said it was urgent, so you know which call to return first. The note will not say "lower back, GP referral"; it will say "urgent — call back about a health matter". A booking carries the appointment type from your own list — "initial consultation", "follow-up", "long consultation" — never the condition.
• No advice, of any kind. Not "that can wait", not "that sounds fine", not "you should come in". If asked, it says plainly that it isn't qualified.
• Nothing is kept at the voice provider. For restricted practices the call audio is not recorded at all and the written transcript is deleted rather than kept. It will tell a caller exactly that if they ask.
• Ordinary reception still works normally. Appointments, reschedules, cancellations, hours, location, parking, whether you're taking new patients, and any fee you've published as a fixed price. The actual job of a front desk.

Name your people on the settings page and give anyone their own hours. From then on a caller can ask for a person by name, the receptionist offers only that person's times, and the booking lands on their diary. Someone who doesn't mind gets the first free time with anyone. Each person can also hand Giday a calendar feed of their own, and busy time in it is never offered for them.

Someone who's seized up and wants today is urgent, not an emergency. The receptionist offers the earliest time you've made available, or takes a call-back marked urgent and texts you at once. It won't judge how bad it is.

Danger to life or limb is a different rule, and it outranks everything. If a caller describes anything that sounds like it — trouble breathing, severe bleeding that won't stop, a collapse — the receptionist stops whatever it was doing. You choose how that call is handled, at signup or on your settings page:

• Tell them to hang up and ring triple zero (000), hang up so their line is free, and text you at once. The default.
• Put them through to your emergency contact first and tell them to ring 000 if that rings out.
• Say your own words first then tell them to ring 000.

Whichever you choose, it does not ring 000 for them, never implies help is on the way, errs heavily on the side of acting, and texts you every time. This rule exists only in restricted mode; Giday is not an emergency service for any client.

Every Giday call opens with the greeting above: on a recorded line. That sentence is inside the greeting and can't be switched off, by us or by you. For a restricted clinic the audio is then not actually kept and the transcript is deleted — the notice stays because a patient is owed that sentence more than anyone.

What reaches you: a text and an email per call with the booking or the call-back request. Not a transcript, not a summary of what was said about the condition. Your privacy obligations under the Privacy Act stay yours, as they would with any receptionist; ours is to hold as little as possible and to have written down exactly what the service does — the medical page, the recording-law guide and the data handling page are the long version.

• Overflow. Your desk keeps answering; Giday picks up what rings out while you're with a patient.
• Before open and after close. Divert at close, divert back at open. The 7:50 am rebook is in the calendar before you've unlocked.
• All the time. The sole practitioner with no front desk.

Bookings land in your calendar through a subscription feed any calendar app reads. There is no link into practice software yet — if you run Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy or Coreplus, bookings reach you by calendar and by text, not inside those systems. HICAPS and health-fund claiming are nothing to do with the phone and stay exactly as they are.

Every plan answers 24/7, books into your calendar and takes messages. The difference is minutes and machinery.

All prices AUD, GST included. Month to month, no lock-in. A one-off big month is billed as the cheapest plan that covers it, never as runaway overage.

Sixty minutes of call time on us, for a week. Card up front, nothing charged, and the clock doesn't start until your receptionist answers its first call. Tick yes to the health question and it runs restricted from the first ring.