WhatsApp appointment booking for clinics and hospitals in Madurai

How a patient books

1. The patient messages the clinic number (from the signboard, the Google listing or an old prescription) or taps a link.
2. The bot asks what they need and offers the departments or doctors you set up.
3. A short form inside WhatsApp shows the open slots for the next days, with the doctor's actual OPD hours.
4. The patient picks a slot and confirms. They receive the time, the building and floor, what to bring, and a cancel option.
5. A reminder arrives the evening before and again two hours before. A reply of "change" reopens the slot picker.

What you set up once

• Doctors or departments as services, each with a slot length (10 minutes for a follow-up, 30 for a new patient).
• Each doctor's OPD hours as a weekly routine, with a buffer and how many patients one slot can hold. Camp days and leave as fixed exceptions.
• One or several locations if you have a branch in Thirumangalam or Melur.
• The Tamil wording of the confirmation and the reminders. We supply a draft; you change the tone.

All of this sits under Appointments in Playbot. The availability engine will not give out a slot that overlaps a booking, a buffer or a closed hour, so the receptionist and the bot cannot double-book each other.

The reminder is the point

For a patient coming from Usilampatti, a reminder the evening before is what stops the bus being missed. Reminders are WhatsApp template messages, so they arrive even if the patient has not written in days, and the patient can reply to it. Recurring reminders handle the dental recall and the diabetic review without anyone keeping a diary. See WhatsApp reminders.

Reports, prescriptions and follow-ups on the same thread

A diagnostic report goes out as a PDF on the thread the patient already has. A follow-up date set at discharge becomes a booking and a reminder. If the patient asks something the bot cannot answer, the chat lands with the front desk in the inbox, with the booking visible beside it.

Multi-speciality hospitals

Several OPDs mean several calendars. Each department has its own services, hours and staff in the inbox; the patient sees one number. Assignment rules send a cardiology question to the cardiology desk. Google Calendar sync lets each consultant see their day on their own phone.

What it costs a Madurai clinic

The Playbot plan, plus Meta's charge per template message (each reminder is one; replies inside a 24-hour window are free). A single-doctor clinic sending two reminders per booking spends a few rupees per patient on messaging. Plans are on the pricing page; the trial is 14 days and needs no card.