BadMethodCallException Call to undefined method Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany::citas() - eloquent

Question

I need to obtain the appointments of a patient who is in the clinics that have a doctor.
A doctor may have several clinics associated with him.
I have a 1:n relationship between appointments and clinics. 1 appointment occurs at 1 clinic and 1 clinic has many appointments.
My Models:
class Cita extends Model
{
public function clinica()
{
return $this->belongsTo('\App\Models\Clinica');
}
}
class Clinica extends Model
{
public function citas()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Models\Cita')->withTimestamps();
}
}
And in my controller I have:
public function indexpaciente($paciente_id)
{
$paciente = Paciente::find($paciente_id);
$clinicas = User::find(Auth::user()->id)->clinicas()->where('estado', '=', 1); // clinicas del doctor
$citas = $clinicas->citas()->where('paciente_id', '=', $paciente_id)->get(); // citas asociadas a las clinicas del doctor
dd($citas);
The citas table is as follows:
public function up()
{
Schema::create('citas', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('title')->nullable;
$table->string('descripcion')->nullable;
$table->dateTime("start")->nullable();
$table->dateTime("end")->nullable();
$table->unsignedBiginteger('paciente_id')->nullable(); // paciente
$table->foreign('paciente_id')->references('id')->on('pacientes')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->unsignedBiginteger('profesional_id')->nullable(); // doctor que lo atendió
$table->foreign('profesional_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->unsignedBiginteger('clinica_id')->nullable(); // clinica
$table->foreign('clinica_id')->references('id')->on('clinicas')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->unsignedBiginteger('creadapor_id')->nullable(); // quien la creó
$table->foreign('creadapor_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->integer('roldelquelacreo')->default(1); // rol a quien pertenece para calculo de comisiones
$table->string('encabezado')->nullable(); // encabezado de la epicrisis
$table->string('glosa','500')->nullable(); // solo para los proefesionales
$table->unsignedDecimal('total', $precision = 11, $scale = 2)->nullable(); //suma de las prestaciones con 2 decimales max: $99.999.999,99
$table->integer('estado')->default(1); // 1= cita creada 0= cita bloqueada
$table->timestamps();
});
}
I have both models defined as appropriate in a 1:n relationship but it still tells me that appointments are undefined.

Answer 1

where does not return a result, it is a builder method. You are using what is returned from where as a result (Model in this case) when it is still the builder that is building the query. You would have to execute the query to get a result. Even if you get the result, it seems like you want to get many results, you would get a Collection back from get, which wouldn't have a relationship method citas. So there are multiple problems here.
This would get you many "clinicas":
$clinicas = Auth::user()->clinicas()->where('estado', '=', 1)->get();
Which would be a Collection of Models, so not sure what particular Model you would want to be calling the relationship method on.
This would get you 1 'clinica':
$clinica = Auth::user()->clinicas()->where('estado', '=', 1)->firstOrFail();
Then you could call the relationship method on this result:
$clinica->citas()->....;
Your error message does not match the code you have provided as you have not defined a Belongs To Many relationship here.