Skip to main content
Consultants rarely work in one system. This tab keeps the hospital calendar honest about the rest of a clinician’s week — either by connecting their own account both ways, or by subscribing to an outside calendar one way.

​
What this tab controls

The tab has two halves, and they do different jobs.

​
Connected Accounts — two-way

“Connect your Google or Outlook calendar with two-way sync. Each staff member links their own account.” Select Google or Outlook, sign in, and choose which calendars to sync. Appointments here are copied out to that calendar, and its events come back. Each connected account has Sync now, Choose calendars, Reconnect and Disconnect.

​
Calendar Subscriptions (read-only) — one-way

“Subscribe to an external calendar (Google, Outlook, Apple, or any .ics URL) … Events appear on your clinic calendar and stay in sync — read-only, one-way.” A privacy card above the list sets how much patient identity appears on a synced calendar, clinic-wide.

​
Set it up

1

Decide which half you need

Use Connected Accounts when a clinician wants their hospital diary and their own calendar to agree in both directions. Use Calendar Subscriptions when you only need to see an outside commitment — a rota, a teaching block, a platform like Headway or Alma.
2

Connect an account

Select Google or Outlook, sign in as that clinician, then use Choose calendars to pick which of their calendars sync.
3

Or copy a secret .ics address

In the other calendar, find its private iCal address. The How to connect a calendar panel spells out where it lives in Google, Outlook, Apple iCloud and the therapy platforms. Always take the secret / private link and treat it like a password.
4

Add and test it

Select Add calendar, paste the address, then Test connection. You should see the calendar name and a count of upcoming events before you save.
5

Assign it and set the frequency

Pick the staff member it belongs to, and a Sync frequency that matches how often that calendar really changes.
6

Save

Select Connect & import. The first sync runs immediately and reports what it created.
7

Choose blocking or info only

On the feed’s row, use the Blocks booking / Info only switch. It confirms with “Now blocks booking” or “Now info-only”.

​
What changes once you save

Imported events appear on the hospital calendar at the venue you nominated, and stay in step on your chosen frequency. A blocking feed makes that time unbookable — but does not create a ClinikEHR appointment. This is the distinction that decides how you use the switch:
  • Blocks booking — the provider’s slots at that time disappear from availability, so nobody double-books them. There is no appointment, no patient, no invoice and no clinical record.
  • Info only — the event is visible to staff and changes nothing about what can be booked.
Sync is periodic, not instant. An event added to the outside calendar a minute ago is not here yet; it arrives on the next run, or immediately if you select Sync now. Plan around that when a clinician cancels at short notice — use Sync now, or block the time here directly. Imported events are not linked to a patient. “Open one on the calendar to link it if it represents a clinical encounter.” Connecting an account also sends the other way, and that is your responsibility to manage: “your ClinikEHR appointments are copied to your external calendar — including telehealth visits and their secure join links. Anyone with access to that calendar can see them.” Set the clinic-wide privacy card before you connect anything. Removing a feed stops syncing at once and removes its imported events; anything you linked to a patient is kept as a normal local appointment.

​
Check it worked

Open the hospital calendar for the assigned clinician and find one event you know exists in the other calendar. Then, on a feed set to Blocks booking, try to book that provider over the top of it — those times should not be offered. On a feed set to Info only, they should still be.

​
Common issues

It appears for owners and managers only. Everyone else with settings access does not see it at all.
Subscriptions are clinic-wide governance and load for owners and managers only. Connecting your own account works for any staff member.
You almost certainly have the public sharing link, not the secret iCal one. It must start https:// or webcal:// and end at an .ics feed.
“…auto-paused after repeated sync errors. Check the URL, then re-enable to resume.” A regenerated secret address is the usual cause — edit the feed and paste the new one.
That feed is Info only. Switch it to Blocks booking on the row.
Correct — it never does. It reserves the time and nothing more. Book a real appointment if the visit belongs in the record.