Releasing to all practices Thursday 1st October 2026.
When a patient calls or comes to the front desk, your reception team now has an improved path to submit a request for them straight from Anima. They answer the same clinical questionnaires patients see online. The new clinical proxy flow refines the existing pathway: Search and match patient, select the questionnaire (or describe the problem and let Anima match one), work through the questions, and verify details to submit.
Why we've made these improvements
Better patient matching. Making it even easier for reception team members to match to patients (including patients you have open on EMIS/SystmOne).
Smarter questionnaire matching. Promotes Reception teams to locate condition-specific questionnaires to better capture condition details, aiming to reduce the time required to follow-up on missing details.
Faster for reception. Favourite the questionnaires you use most, search by symptom, and see all questions at once so the call feels more like a conversation, not just a script.
Custom Questionnaires now available. Alongside this new flow, we've added the ability for practices to create their own Questionnaires and have these be available in our Clinical Proxy Flow. More details here.
Watch the walkthrough đš
Step by Step Guide
Step 1: Open the request form
In Anima, go to the Requests dashboard and click the blue Create Request button. The Submit request on behalf of patient window opens.
Step 2: Find the patient
In the Anima desktop app: if the patient's record is open in your clinical system (EMIS/SystmOne), use Sync currently open patient to pull them in with one click.
Otherwise: search under Search for the patient by either:
NHS Number, or
Name and DOB (first name, surname and date of birth)
Then click Search.
Step 3: Select the patient
Check the details on the patient card (NHS number, date of birth, phone number, postcode, registered practice) and click Select this patient.
Tip: The card shows how many active requests the patient already has. Click View to check whether they've already contacted you about the same issue, so you don't create a duplicate.
Step 4: Complete the emergency screening
The questionnaire starts with the same emergency check patients see online: severe chest pain, severe shortness of breath, signs of a stroke, severe bleeding, or new confusion or drowsiness.
If none apply, click None of the above.
If the patient reports one, tick it and click Get help with this emergency request. Tell the patient to call 999 now.
If you ticked one by mistake, go back, untick it and carry on. As with online requests, Anima flags that an emergency symptom was ticked at first.
Step 5: Choose the request type
Under "In a few words, what would you like help with today?", choose a questionnaire in one of three ways:
Describe it. Type what the patient tells you (e.g. "cough" or "back pain") and click Continue. Anima opens the best-matching questionnaire.
Pick a favourite. Starred questionnaires show on this screen for one-click access.
Browse the full list. Click View full list to see your practice's custom questionnaires and then all default questionnaires. You can also search by name.
Favourite your common ones: Click the star next to any questionnaire in the full list to pin it to the main screen for your whole practice. Good candidates are your standard triage form and frequent requests like cough, sore throat or test results.
Step 6: Complete the questionnaire with the patient
Work through the questions with the patient. You can either:
answer them one at a time as they appear, or
click See all questions (top right) to view the whole form and scroll through, which usually feels more natural on a call.
When you're done, click Check answers.
Tip: Use 'See all questions' on the top right of screen so all questions in the form can be displayed on the same page.
Step 7: Add contact details and submit
Enter who Anima should contact about this request: first name, surname, relationship to the patient, and phone number. Then click Submit request.
The request appears at the top of your Requests dashboard, just like one submitted online.
