Key Takeaways
- Your website keeps taking questions while the clinic is shut. In 2026, Christmas Day is a Friday and Monday 28 December is a public holiday in every state and territory, so most clinics face at least a four-day weekend, and many close for a week or more.
- Patients plan January during the break. They ask when you reopen, whether there is a slot in the first week back, whether their Medicare plan sessions reset, and what to do if something gets worse.
- Put those answers on your site before you close: dated closure and reopening times, a holiday notice on the home page, and where to get urgent help.
- A website assistant answers from your published pages only. With Cliniko, Nookal or Gensolve it can book open slots after the patient confirms. With Halaxy it shows live openings and the patient finishes on Halaxy's booking page.
- It never gives medical advice. Your closure notice should point patients to healthdirect on 1800 022 222 and to triple zero (000) in an emergency.
Over the Christmas closure, your clinic website is the only front desk patients can reach, so it needs to answer their questions on its own: when you reopen, how to book the first week back, what their rebates cover, and where to go for urgent help. A website assistant can field those questions from your own pages and, with the right practice software, book patients into open January slots. Here is what patients ask while you are away, what to publish before you close, and what an assistant should and should not do.
Contents
- When are clinics closed over Christmas 2026?
- What do patients ask while you are closed?
- Why does your website have to carry the answers?
- Can patients book the first week back while you are away?
- What should an assistant never do over the break?
- A pre-closure checklist
- Frequently Asked Questions
- References
When are clinics closed over Christmas 2026?
The public holidays alone make a long break. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, Christmas Day falls on Friday 25 December 2026 and Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December. Because Boxing Day lands on a weekend, Monday 28 December is a public holiday in every state and territory. In Tasmania it is Boxing Day itself, and in South Australia it is the Proclamation Day holiday [1]. New Year's Day then falls on Friday 1 January 2027.
So even a clinic that only closes on public holidays loses four days in a row from Christmas Day. Many allied health practices close from Christmas Eve until the first full week of January, which can mean ten days or more with nobody on reception.
Patients do not stop thinking about their health during that time. Many use the quiet week to sort out January: a sore knee from the holiday cricket, a new year's resolution to finally see someone about their back, or a child's sports season starting soon.
What do patients ask while you are closed?
Mostly your usual front desk questions, plus a few seasonal ones:
- "Are you open?" and "When do you reopen?"
- "Can I get in the first week back?" often for a named practitioner.
- "Does my Medicare plan reset in January?" Under a GP chronic condition management plan, patients can claim up to five allied health services each calendar year, January to December [2]. A patient who has used their five in 2026 may be waiting for January on purpose.
- "Will my health fund cover it?" That depends on their fund and their level of extras, so the honest answer is to check with the fund.
- "Do you do telehealth?" In the ABS Patient Experiences survey for 2024-25, 22.5% of people used telehealth services [3].
- "What do I do if it gets worse?"
Patients ask at odd hours. HealthEngine reported that 58% of bookings on its platform, across all practitioner types, were made outside 9am to 5pm over the six months to February 2019 [4]. The figure is old and from one platform, but the pattern is familiar.
Why does your website have to carry the answers?
Because during a closure nobody else will. Your phone goes to voicemail, your inbox fills up, and the website is the only thing a patient can reach.
A website assistant such as QuackChat answers from the pages it has read on your site. For anything specific to your practice (your fees, your rebates, your reopening date, which practitioner treats what), it answers only from what you have published. If your closure dates are not on the site, it has no way of knowing them, and it says it does not have that detail rather than guessing. It will not invent a reopening date or a price.
That makes the work before you close simple. Write the answers down, put them on your site in plain text, then make sure the assistant has read the new version. In QuackChat you refresh a changed page from your indexed pages view, and it rebuilds its answers from the current text. You can also switch on source links, so patients see which page each answer came from. New bots start with them off.
Can patients book the first week back while you are away?
It depends on your practice software.
Cliniko, Nookal and Gensolve. QuackChat connects through each system's API and reads live availability, either the next open slots or from a date the patient names, such as "the first week of January". A new patient fills in a short intake form that creates their record in your system. The appointment is written only after the patient explicitly confirms the time, and then it sits in your calendar like any other booking, ready for your first morning back.
Halaxy. The connection is read-only. QuackChat shows live openings for the coming week, and the patient confirms the booking on your Halaxy booking page. During a long closure the coming week may have no openings to show, so make sure your Halaxy booking page link is on your site for patients who want to look further ahead.
Cancelling and rescheduling work with Cliniko, Nookal and Gensolve only, since the Halaxy connection cannot change appointments. Even on those three they are off by default. Each one switches on only when the clinic turns on patient notifications for that change, and it needs the patient to verify their name, phone and date of birth first.
What should an assistant never do over the break?
Give medical advice. That matters most when a worried patient has nobody else to ask.
QuackChat's instruction not to diagnose, recommend treatment or tailor advice to an individual sits in a part of the prompt the clinic's own settings cannot change. It can repeat what your site says about the conditions you treat and help the patient book or contact you. For anything that needs professional judgement, it tells them to see a qualified professional or contact the clinic.
That is why your closure notice should say where to go for urgent help. Patients do use after-hours care: 5.4% of people used after-hours GP services in 2024-25 [3]. The healthdirect helpline on 1800 022 222 is answered by registered nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is known as NURSE-ON-CALL in Victoria. For anything critical or life threatening, healthdirect's advice is to call triple zero (000) [5]. Put both on your closure page in plain text, so the assistant can repeat them and so can any patient who reads the page directly.
A pre-closure checklist
Work through this in the first two weeks of December.
- Publish your closure dates. Last day open, first day back, and any days with limited hours, on your hours page and as a notice on your home page.
- Open your January calendar. Release first-week-back slots in your practice software before you leave, so there is something to book.
- Add urgent care information. healthdirect on 1800 022 222, triple zero for emergencies, and your nearest after-hours service if you know it.
- Check your rebate page. Mention that Medicare plan sessions run by calendar year, and link to the official source.
- Refresh the changed pages in your assistant, then ask it "are you open on 29 December?" and "when can I book?" and check the answers.
- Decide on follow-ups. If you collect patient details through lead capture, plan who reads them on your first morning back.
For the details per system, see booking into Cliniko, Nookal, Gensolve and showing Halaxy availability. Plans are on the pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 28 December 2026 a public holiday in Australia?
Yes, in every state and territory. Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2026, so Monday 28 December is the additional public holiday in most places, Boxing Day itself in Tasmania, and the Proclamation Day holiday in South Australia.
Can a chatbot book patients into my clinic while we are closed?
Yes, if your practice software allows it and you have open slots. QuackChat books into Cliniko, Nookal and Gensolve after the patient confirms. With Halaxy it shows live openings and the patient books on Halaxy's page.
Do Medicare allied health sessions reset in January?
Under a GP chronic condition management plan, the limit is five allied health services each calendar year, January to December, so the count starts again on 1 January. Check MBS Online for the current rules.
What happens if a patient asks the assistant for medical advice?
It does not give it. It can share what your site says about your services and help the patient book or contact you, and for anything needing professional judgement it tells them to see a qualified professional or contact the clinic.
References
- Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/public-holidays/2026-public-holidays (retrieved 7 October 2026)
- MBS Online, item 10960 and chronic condition management plan notes. https://www9.health.gov.au/mbs/fullDisplay.cfm?type=item&q=10960 (retrieved 7 October 2026)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Patient Experiences 2024-25 (released 18 November 2025). https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-services/patient-experiences/latest-release (retrieved 7 October 2026)
- HealthEngine, health tech use at all-time high as Aussies embrace digital health to access out-of-hours services (4 April 2019). https://healthengine.com.au/press/2019/04/04/health-tech-use-at-all-time-high-as-aussies-embrace-digital-health-to-access-out-of-hours-services/ (retrieved 7 October 2026)
- healthdirect, contact us. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/contact-us (retrieved 7 October 2026)