Three parties, one appointment, and a form nobody brought
An HR manager emails to book a pre-employment medical for a new warehouse supervisor starting on Monday. A recruiter books two more for candidates at a client firm. A local taxi driver books his licensing medical himself and arrives with the council's form half filled in. A haulage driver needs his medical form completed and signed before his licence renewal date.
Each medical has its own paperwork. The GP needs the right form, the candidate's consent to share the outcome, sometimes an eyesight result, sometimes a questionnaire completed in advance. The invoice might go to the employer, the recruiter or the candidate. When any piece is missing on the day, the appointment runs long or has to be rebooked, and the employer rings to ask why their new starter has not been cleared.
Why medicals generate so much back and forth
Most practice systems book a patient into an appointment. A medical is more than that: it involves a requester who may not be the patient, a form defined by someone else (an employer, a council, the DVLA), a consent step about who receives the outcome, and a deadline set by a start date or licence expiry.
None of that fits neatly into an appointment note. So it lives in email threads. The person who booked is not the person who attends. The candidate does not know which form to bring. The doctor finds out on the day that the employer's questionnaire was never sent to the candidate.
Outcome letters then go by whatever route the requester used, which is sometimes a personal email address the recruiter gave on the phone.
What disorganised medicals cost
| Problem | What it causes |
|---|---|
| Wrong or missing form | Rebooked appointment, a second trip for the candidate |
| Consent not recorded | Outcome cannot be sent, employer waits |
| Unclear payer | Invoice raised to the wrong party or forgotten |
| Deadline unknown | Start date or licence renewal missed |
| Outcome sent informally | No record of what went to whom |
Employers and recruiters who book medicals regularly notice these failures quickly and move to a clinic that seems more organised. That is repeat business at stake, not a single appointment.
How we build one route for every medical
- A booking form for each medical type, usable by the candidate, an HR team or a recruiter, which records who is requesting, who is attending, who pays and the deadline that matters.
- The right paperwork is attached automatically for that medical type, and the candidate receives any pre-appointment questionnaire or form to complete, with a reminder if it is not back in time.
- Consent to share the outcome, and with whom, is captured from the candidate in writing before the appointment, in wording your doctors approve.
- The payer is invoiced in Xero or QuickBooks, or asked to pay online, according to your terms for that requester.
- After the appointment, the doctor records the outcome in their normal system; the tracker then sends the outcome letter only to the recipients the candidate consented to, and logs it.
- A board shows every medical by stage, with deadlines, so the admin lead can see which ones are at risk.
The medical assessment and its outcome are wholly for your doctors. The system never suggests a decision; it makes sure the paperwork is right and goes to the right place.
What your team notices
Candidates arrive with forms completed. Doctors spend the appointment on the medical, not on paperwork. HR managers get a confirmation when they book and a letter when it is done, without ringing. Every outcome has a record of the consent behind it and the address it went to.
Recruiters who send you work regularly can be given their own booking link, which makes you the easy choice when they next need a medical in a hurry.
Does this describe your medicals?
- Medicals are booked by email with HR or recruiters
- Candidates arrive without the right form
- You are unsure whether consent covers sending to the employer
- Invoices for medicals are sometimes raised late or not at all
- Nobody can see which medicals are up against a start date