How to Use Patient Alerts

Last updated: 13 July 2026

Patient alerts are high-visibility notices that appear at the top of a patient's record. Use them to flag critical safety information that every clinician and staff member should see.

When to Use Alerts

Alerts are designed for important safety and clinical information, such as:

  • Drug allergies or adverse reactions
  • Safeguarding concerns
  • Infection control requirements
  • Communication needs (e.g. hearing impairment)
  • Violent or aggressive behaviour warnings

Creating an Alert

  1. Open the patient's record
  2. Go to the Alerts section of the Clinical Record (the Alerts item in the patient's clinical navigation — or click View all on the alert banner if the patient already has alerts)
  3. In the Active Alerts card, click Add alert (top-right of the card)
  4. Enter the alert details
  5. Click Create alert

The alert appears immediately as a coloured banner at the top of the patient's record.

Critical Alert Popup

When a patient has active alerts, a popup modal appears the first time any user opens that patient's record in a session. This ensures critical information is not missed.

Ending an Alert

When an alert is no longer relevant:

  1. Open the patient's record
  2. Go to the Alerts section of the Clinical Record
  3. Find the alert in the Active Alerts card and click End
  4. The alert is marked as ended with a timestamp but remains in the patient's history

Ended alerts are not deleted - they are retained for audit purposes and can be viewed in the alert history.

Important: Alerts are visible to all staff who can access the patient record. Only use them for information that genuinely needs to be seen by everyone.

Alerts Overview

/app/alerts now has an Overview tab alongside the existing Register tab. The Overview summarises your practice's alert load:

  • KPI cards — Active, Critical, Reviews due, New in last 30 days
  • Daily-creation trend chart
  • Breakdowns by category and severity
  • Upcoming reviews table sorted by review date

The Register tab continues to show the searchable list of individual alerts.