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Patient Groups - Access vs Booking: What's The Difference?

A Team Member's relationship to a Patient Group involves two separate settings that are easy to mix up: Access, which controls what they can see, and Booking, which controls who can book them. They're configured independently, and keeping them apart is deliberate. Not every Team Member who needs to see a group's patients is a bookable provider; admin and support staff often need access without ever taking bookings. This article explains the difference and how patient visibility works.

🧩 The Two Settings at a Glance

  • The Patient Groups (Access) setting controls what a Team Member can see: the patient records and reporting for the groups they're assigned to.
  • The Patient Groups (Booking) setting controls who can book a provider: which groups' patients can make appointments with them.

These are independent. A provider can be bookable by a group without seeing that group's patients, and a Team Member can have access to a group without being bookable at all.

🔒 Patient Groups (Access) (what a Team Member can see)

A Team Member's Patient Groups (Access) assignments determine which patients they can see and work with across the platform, including in reporting. This applies to any Team Member, not just providers. Admin and support staff are given access to the groups they need to work with.

Because each patient belongs to exactly one Patient Group, these assignments define precisely which patients are visible. Access also governs record access: a Team Member can only open a patient's record if they have access to that patient's Patient Group. If a patient is moved to a group the Team Member isn't assigned to (an aftercare group, for example), they won't be able to open that record until they're given access to the new group.

This setting is admin-only. It appears as the Patient Groups (Access) tab on the Team Member's profile, and as the Team Member Access tab when you open a Patient Group directly. It's the same relationship viewed from either side.

📅 Patient Groups (Booking) (who can book a provider)

A provider's Patient Groups (Booking) assignments make them a Bookable Provider for those groups, so patients in those groups can book appointments with them.

This is only about bookings. Booking assignments don't give the provider visibility of those patients by themselves, so a provider can be bookable by a group without seeing that group's other patients. For the full booking setup, see the Making a Provider Bookable guide. (TBD article link.)

🎯 How Patient Visibility Works

A Team Member can see a patient through any of three routes:

  • The View All Patients Permission, set within their Role, which lets them see every patient in the Organisation. (Organisations build their own Roles under Administration → Roles and Permissions.)
  • Their Patient Groups (Access) assignments, which let them see every patient in those groups.
  • Their Care Team membership, which lets them see any patient whose Care Team they belong to.

The Care Team route matters for providers. When a patient books with a provider directly, or staff book on the provider's behalf, that provider is automatically added to the patient's Care Team and gains access to that patient.

This enables a useful pattern. You can make a provider a Bookable Provider for a Patient Group without giving them Patient Groups (Access) to it. They won't see everyone in the group, but the group's patients can still see the provider's profile and book them. As soon as a patient books, the provider joins that patient's Care Team and can access that patient, so the provider only ever sees the patients who actually book with them.

One common gotcha: turning off View All Patients doesn't limit a Team Member who still has Patient Groups (Access) assignments. Those assignments grant visibility on their own, so the Team Member keeps seeing every patient in their assigned groups, including in reporting. To control exactly who someone can see, review their Patient Groups (Access) assignments alongside the View All Patients Permission in their Role.

📍 Where to Configure These

Both settings are admin-only and configured by a Team Member with Admin permissions.

For Patient Groups (Access), use either:

  • Go to Administration → Team Members, open the Team Member, and use the Patient Groups (Access) tab.
  • Or open the Patient Group directly and use the Team Member Access tab.

For Patient Groups (Booking), use either:

  • Go to Administration → Team Members, open the provider, and use the Patient Groups (Booking) tab.
  • Or open the Patient Group directly and use the Bookable Providers tab.

💡 Best Practices

  • Use Patient Groups (Access) to control what a Team Member sees, and Patient Groups (Booking) to control who can book a provider. They're separate settings.
  • To limit what a Team Member can see, review their Patient Groups (Access) assignments, not just the View All Patients Permission.
  • To give a provider booking exposure to a group without full visibility of it, make them a Bookable Provider but leave them out of that group's Access. They'll gain access to each patient only once that patient books them.
  • If a Team Member can't open a patient's record, check that they have Patient Groups (Access) to that patient's group.

Next step:
➡️ To set a provider up for bookings, see the Making a Provider Bookable guide. To review what a Team Member can see, open their Patient Groups (Access) tab.