AI tool trialled in Sussex among those accelerated by the NHS to cut waiting times and improve care for millions
An artificial intelligence (AI) tool trialled in Sussex is among a major rollout announced across the NHS of initiatives being accelerated to help cut waiting lists and improve care for millions of patients.
NHS England have set out how £10 billion of funding over the next three years, allocated by the government last year, will be used for a major overhaul of the health service’s technology, digital and data systems.
The improvements are expected to deliver around half of the commitments in the government’s 10 Year Health Plan and generate £41 billion in total benefits over the next decade.
The NHS App’s new AI triage tool is being rolled out following a successful trial. It is due to reach more than 200,000 patients within the next 12 months and be available to all NHS App users by April 2028.
The tool makes sure patients are directed to the right care, first time - whether that’s a GP appointment, pharmacy, A&E, community service or self-care advice - by adapting questions depending on responses to get a more detailed view of a patient’s condition.
It then either directs them to the most appropriate service or provides clinicians with the information they need to prioritise care.
An initial trial at a GP practice in Sussex resulted in a 29% reduction in the number of people queuing on the phone - helping to end the 8am rush while maintaining patient satisfaction levels.
Patients will continue to have the option of using traditional methods to contact their GP practice alongside the new AI triage tool in the NHS App.
Dr Ragu Rajan from Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership who took part in the trial, said:
As a rural practice serving 23,000 patients across four sites, we know how hard it can be for people to reach us.
Integrating AI triage directly into the NHS App means our patients can tell us what they need, when they need it, and be directed to the right care first time. It hasn’t replaced our judgement - it’s given us back the time to use it.
NHS England will also support a national rollout of AI tools which record conversations between patients and NHS staff to generate real-time transcriptions and clinical summaries.
The rollout will start with hospital appointments not requiring an overnight stay where their use has been proven to significantly reduce the amount of time clinicians spent on admin.
A major NHS study published last year found that AI notetaking tools, known as ambient voice technology, free up clinicians to spend nearly a quarter more of their time with patients.
The study, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital, found that scaling the technology nationally to over 11,000 A&E clinicians in England could create space for over 9,000 extra A&E consultations each day.
Tens of thousands of NHS staff across south-west London will become the latest to benefit from the tech which is being rolled out across four NHS trusts - St George’s, Epsom and St Helier, Croydon, and Kingston and Richmond.
A pilot in the emergency department at St George’s Hospital in Tooting found that it saved clinicians an average of 47 minutes per shift - allowing each member of staff to see an additional patient every shift.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust are also expanding their AI notetaking programmes to more than 3,000 clinicians following successful pilots.
Other plans that are part of the £10 billion technology, digital and data investment include NHS App users being able join online appointments with expert clinicians across England using the NHS’s new virtual hospital service - NHS Online.
Patients will also be able to use the NHS App to request follow-up appointments after treatment, and NHS-approved digital tools will help them manage exercise and rehabilitation for common lung and heart conditions - giving patients more control of their healthcare.
The NHS will also introduce a Single Patient Record to provide specialists across the NHS with a full picture of a patient’s medical history, roll out new digital tools to help staff manage urgent and planned patient care more effectively, and enhance cyber security to protect patient data and NHS systems.
More than 500,000 NHS staff are also being given access to Microsoft Copilot after a trial led to workers cutting the amount of time they spent on admin by an average of two days every month.
The AI personal assistant helps staff to draft documents and analyse data more efficiently, freeing up more time for patient care.