Your practice's document library

Some of the documents you send patients are not about any one patient: a registration form, guidance on a medication, instructions before a procedure. The document library is where your practice keeps those, so anyone here can attach one to a message without going to find the file first.

Where to find it

Go to Configuration → Communications → Messages, then the Document Library tab.

Adding a document

1. Click Add document
2. Choose a file - PDF, Word, an image or plain text, up to 25 MB
3. Give it a name people will recognise
4. Add a description saying when you would send it

The description is worth filling in. It is searchable, so a colleague who does not know what the document is called can still find it by describing what they need.

Finding a document

Search matches both the name and the description. Use the Status filter to show archived documents alongside the available ones.

Editing, archiving and deleting

Click a row to open it. From there you can open the file, rename it, change its description, archive it or delete it.

• Archiving takes a document out of circulation but keeps it in the library. Archived documents are not offered when someone is sending a message, so a form you have retired cannot go out by mistake.
• Deleting removes it permanently.

Neither affects documents already sent - see below.

Replacing a document

You cannot swap the file behind an existing entry. To update a form, add the new version and archive the old one.

This is deliberate. When you send a library document, the patient receives a copy taken at that moment, and a copy of it is filed on their record. Editing or archiving the library entry afterwards does not change what a patient already received, so what you sent someone last month is still what they see.

Who can do what

• Anyone at the practice can send a document from the library.
• Adding, renaming, archiving and deleting need the Manage settings permission.

Sending one

See How to Include a Document in a Patient Message.