Chat
Last updated 25 April 2026
The Chat tab lets your clinic communicate directly with patients through the Local Health Care platform. Patients can message your clinic from their patient dashboard, and your team can read and respond in real time from the portal.
Chat is useful for answering questions about appointments, sharing follow-up instructions, or responding to non-urgent clinical queries — without needing to exchange phone numbers or personal email addresses. Unread messages appear with a badge on the Chat tab in the navigation bar.
Who can access chat?
Chat is a feature-gated section. If the Chat tab is visible in your portal navigation, it is enabled for your clinic. Staff with the can_view_chat permission can read and reply to patient messages. Owners and Managers always have access.
What's in this section
- Patient Messaging — How to read patient messages, reply, manage conversation threads, and understand privacy and availability settings