Patchwork Health vs Dr Diary
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Patchwork Health
This app streamlines the process of finding and booking flexible work for healthcare professionals. It helps users manage their shifts, track payments, and store important documents, reducing administrative hassle.
- Join multiple staff banks
- Automated timesheets and payment tracking
- Instant shift booking
- Shift notifications
- Shift planner
- Document management
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We're former healthcare workers who've experienced the hassle around booking locum work and anxieties around getting paid. The hassle stops here. Stop drowning in emails, waiting for responses and automatically track what you’ve worked vs. what you’ve been paid. **Join the thousands of clinicians already using Patchwork Health.** What you can expect: 1. **Join multiple organisations** In just a few minutes, build your profile & join multiple Staff Banks. **2. Paid right, every time** Automatically keep track of what you've worked and when you've been paid with Patchwork Timesheets, all on your phone. 3. **Zero Hassle** End the endless back and forth with HR. Fewer emails, fewer calls, and more control. Book shifts instantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 4. **Get first dibs** Patchwork sends you notifications for shifts that match your skillset, so you can book them first. 5. **Keep track of shifts** Use the Patchwork Planner to keep track of upcoming, applied & urgent shifts. 6. **Safe, Up-to-date documents** Keep all your documents safe, in one place and be notified when they expire.
Dr Diary
This work diary helps UK doctors track job plan activities, understand work patterns, and manage professional development. It allows for detailed activity logging, personalized entries, and report generation to inform negotiations and appraisals.
- Offline activity logging
- Personalized activity tracking
- 15 or 30-minute time slots
- Track multiple employers
- Copy/paste daily/weekly activities
- Summary and detailed reports
- Share reports with employers
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Dr Diary is designed for BMA members who are consultants or SAS (staff, associate specialist and specialty) doctors in the UK, on the latest versions of their contracts. It’s a work diary that enables you to track activities that are part of your job plan, on the go. It’s for doctors who want to understand their working patterns and take control of their professional development. Use the app to accurately reflect the reality of your work. View the reports to see what your workload looks like in terms of sessions or programmed activities (PAs) and how this compares to your job plan. Identify patterns to help plan future work and demonstrate areas for negotiation at your next appraisal or job plan review meeting. Key features include: • Add activities to your diary while offline • Personalise activities to fit the nature of your work, including DCC (Direct Clinical Care), SPA (Supporting Professional Activities), Academic Work and more • Choose to use either 15 or 30-minute time slots • Track your work for more than one employer • Copy a whole day or week of activities to another date • View summary reports on the app • See more detailed reports and share these with your employer at https://doctordiary.bma.org.uk
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Patchwork Health at every 6 days against Dr Diary's every 3 months. Patchwork Health also leads on review sentiment (42% vs 21%). Dr Diary's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Patchwork Health ships an update every 6 days, Dr Diary every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and July 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Patchwork Health | Dr Diary |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (9 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 42.4% of reviews — better | 21.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 12.0.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 125 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LocumTap Ltd | British Medical Association |
Customer experience
Patchwork Health
Dr Diary
Bugs and requests
Patchwork Health
Reported bugs
27 issues- App keeps crashing
- Unable to open app
- Filter button doesn't work
- App not working, showing error while logging in
- Constant popups demanding a review
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- No notifications received
- App is slow and constantly freezing
- Can't log in through the app
- App won't load despite updating
- Doesn't do notifications
- App doesn't display in iPhone notifications settings
- Shifts booked and worked have not shown in the app
- App cannot be used as it keeps crashing after update
- App doesn't send notifications of new shifts
- App auto deletes filters
- Timesheets/payroll bit doesn't load up
- New update is extremely difficult to use, freezing or crashing
- Deleted all previous payslips
- Unable to upload avatar/photo
- App crashes all the time, can't look for or sign off shifts
- So slow that you cannot even load it
- New update is very slow, especially calendar
- New update doesn't show day of the week for shifts
- Laggy, takes time to load shifts, sometimes crashes
- Doesn't accurately state when the next shift is
- App stopped working for weeks
- Keeps crashing, too fragile
Requested features
4 requests- Allow practitioners to erase lists without admin
- Function to automatically send shifts for approval
- Make filters permanent or saveable
- Bring back rates per hour display
Dr Diary
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Patchwork Health
No in-app purchases
Dr Diary
No in-app purchases







