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The Departments tab holds the structure your clinicians pass through on their way into a consultation: departments, the sub-units inside them, and the consultation rates. The card calls it “Department Management”.

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Departments and the rota

This is a ward / inpatient department is a switch on each department (owner or manager only; every change is recorded in the audit log). Turn it on for the departments that run inpatient care. The rota offers your Nursing shifts times for ward shifts only, and marks a ward shift whose times do not line up with them Outside the nursing pattern. Departments that were named like one of your wards were switched on once for you when this arrived; the switch, not the name, is what counts from then on. A rota shift points at its department itself, not at its name, so renaming a department never breaks a shift. If you set a department to Inactive while upcoming shifts use it, you are asked first and told how many; the shifts stay on the rota, marked Inactive department, and Move those shifts in the rota’s banner reassigns them when you are ready. A department with sub-units lets a shift narrow to one sub-unit.

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What this tab controls

One expandable list, three levels: every department is listed with a summary (“3 sub-units · 7 rates”) without opening anything — select a department’s row to expand it and see its sub-units, and a sub-unit’s row to see its consultation rates. Nothing is hidden behind an Add button. Edit and delete are available for all three levels from each row’s ⋮ menu. Consultation rates hang off the sub-unit, not the department. That is the single most important thing on this page: a department with no sub-unit has nowhere to put a price. Every chargeable department needs at least one.

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Set it up

1

Add a department

Select Add Department, fill in Department name, and add a code and description if you want them. Leave Status on Active and select Add department.
2

Expand the department

Select the department’s row to expand it — it starts with “No sub-units yet” and an inline Add sub-unit link, or use Add sub-unit from its ⋮ menu.
3

Add at least one sub-unit

Name it, e.g. “Gastroenterology”. Even a department with one clinic needs one, because that is where the rates live.
4

Expand the sub-unit and add rates

Select the sub-unit’s row to expand it, then Add rate. Name it, choose the Consultation type, and set Price, Duration (minutes) and the validity. Choose Visits allowed if this payment should cover more than one visit — leave it on One visit for the traditional pay-per-visit rate. An initial and a follow-up is the common minimum.
5

Repeat for every department you run

Each row’s summary line (“3 sub-units · 7 rates”) lets you check at a glance that nothing is left at zero.
Deleting only works once the level below it is empty — the confirmation names what’s still underneath if it isn’t, and the delete is refused rather than cascading. A department with staff assigned to it, or with a patient record still pointing at it, is refused too, even with no sub-units left. Delete every rate first, then the sub-unit, then the department. If a department has simply closed, set its Status to Inactive instead — that keeps the record and its prices.

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What changes once you save

Departments are not decoration. They populate the mandatory Select a Department screen that a clinician meets before any consultation list appears — the screen invites them to “Choose the department you’d like to access for consultations.” Existing consultations are not re-priced or re-filed when you change a rate or rename a department. Changing Visits allowed on a rate only affects payments made from that point on — a patient who already paid keeps the rule their payment was made under. If a hospital sells a rate that covers more than one visit, front desk and triage staff can bring a returning patient back onto the department’s waiting list with Requeue patient, without taking a new payment — see Triage.

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Check it worked

Open Consultation from the sidebar. You should land on Select a Department, with a card for each active department and its sub-units listed underneath as badges. Select one: with several sub-units you are asked to pick, and the queue that opens carries your choice in the address. Then start a consultation and confirm your rate is offered at the right price.

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Common issues

Adding, editing and deleting are owner-only. A manager or accountant sees departments, sub-units and rates expand and read, with no actions menu.
Almost always no departments exist yet, so they are looking at No Departments Found. Add one department and one sub-unit and the screen changes.
Rates belong to sub-units. Add a sub-unit, then expand its row — Add rate only exists at that level.
The confirmation dialog names why: anything still underneath it (sub-units, rates), any staff member assigned to the department, or any patient record that still points at it is refused rather than silently removed. A consultation rate already used in a patient payment is refused the same way. Clear what the message names, then delete again — or set the row to Inactive instead if you just want it out of use.
Check the Active switch on the rate, and that the sub-unit and department are both Active. An inactive parent hides everything under it.
The symbol comes from your hospital’s currency in Billing settings, not from this tab. Change it there and these prices re-render; the numbers are not converted.
Setting up a hospital for the first time? Create your departments walks the same ground in build order.