Updated 2026-08-14 · 4 min read
When someone writes to a physiotherapy clinic for the first time, they almost never know what to ask for. They describe a complaint and ask whether «you treat that». What they need isn't a specific treatment: it's the first assessment, which is the appointment where the physiotherapist decides what to do.
Slotting that appointment in well is what carries most weight in a clinic's conversion. And slotting it in badly —giving them a thirty-minute session of something that may not be right for them— costs twice: you lose the slot and you lose their trust.
Why a symptom shouldn't be translated into a treatment in writing
The temptation is obvious: someone writes «my lower back hurts» and the catalogue has «lumbar manual therapy». It seems to fit. But deciding that over WhatsApp is carrying out an assessment without seeing the person, and that's something nobody but the professional at the appointment does or should do.
There's a practical reason as well as the underlying one: if the session booked wasn't the right one, the time goes on explaining it and the patient leaves feeling they've paid for something that wasn't any use to them.
The right answer to a complaint described by message is always the same: note it as it is, don't interpret it, and offer the first assessment.
Protecting it in the calendar: more minutes, and not the last slot
The first assessment needs more time than a follow-up session —there are questions to ask, an examination to do and a plan to explain— and it needs whoever does it not to be running late. Putting it at 20:15 on a Thursday, after seven sessions in a row, is setting it up to fail.
Many clinics reserve one or two fixed time slots a week for assessments and don't open them to anything else until a few days before. It's a simple way to always have a slot free for someone new without leaving the calendar half empty.
What's worth asking BEFORE, and what isn't
Asking a few administrative things in writing saves time at the appointment and doesn't intrude on anything: whether they're already a patient or it's their first time, whether they're coming through an insurer and which one, whether they have a pack in progress, which time of day suits them and which professional if they have a preference.
What isn't asked by message is the clinical history. No medication, no past conditions, no tests. That's neither requested nor stored on the messaging channel: it's seen at the appointment, where it belongs and with the safeguards that apply.
And when what they describe is a red flag
There are things that shouldn't end up in a physiotherapy appointment without a doctor having seen them first: chest pain, difficulty breathing, a hard knock or recent accident, loss of strength or sensation, tingling that won't stop, dizziness or a high temperature.
In the face of that, the right thing is not to book, to say in one sentence —without assessing anything, without reassuring and without suggesting what it might be— that a doctor needs to see that first, and to offer to book once they've been seen. It's an administrative referral, not a clinical judgement.
How ClaudIA does it
When someone describes a complaint, it notes it in their own words, without interpreting it, and offers the clinic's first assessment if it's in the catalogue. It asks the administrative questions in conversation —never as a form— and leaves the reason written in the record so the team reads it beforehand.
If one of the red flags appears, it refers with a single sentence and offers to book afterwards, without assessing anything: not severity, not causes, not rest, cold, heat or exercises. The physiotherapist decides that at the assessment.
Questions clinics ask
Does the assistant decide which treatment the patient needs? No, and it shouldn't. It notes the reason as it is and offers the first assessment, which is where the physiotherapist decides. It only names a specific treatment if the patient asks about it.
How long should a first assessment last? Whatever the clinic decides, but longer than a follow-up session: there are questions to ask, an examination to do and a plan to explain. Forty-five minutes is a common length.
Can a first assessment be booked from the booking page? Yes, and it's best if it's the first treatment on the list: it's what someone arriving for the first time is looking for.
Is what the patient says in the message stored? The reason for the appointment is stored, in their own words, as an operational note. No clinical history is requested or stored through the messaging channel.