Using an artificial intelligence assistant has enabled NHS healthcare staff to spend nearly 25% more of their time directly interacting with patients, according to a recent trial. The AI tool, known as Tortus, automatically transcribes consultations and generates summaries for clinicians to review, reducing administrative burdens and allowing more focus on patient care.

The trial, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), was conducted across nine NHS sites in London, encompassing hospitals, GP surgeries, mental health services, and ambulance services. During almost 17,000 patient interactions, the use of Tortus increased direct clinician-patient interaction time by 23.5%, while cutting the overall appointment length by 8.2%. In emergency departments, Tortus boosted the number of patients seen per shift by 13.4% and halved the time required to complete initial patient notes.

Health Minister Stephen Kinnock emphasised the potential of such innovations to build a future-ready NHS capable of reducing hospital backlogs. He said, “By freeing up clinicians from administrative burden to spend more time with patients, we’re not just improving efficiency, we’re enhancing the human connection that sits at the heart of great healthcare.”

Tortus utilises advanced ambient voice technology, a combination of speech recognition and AI, to capture relevant medical information while filtering out background noise and irrelevant chatter. This approach has allowed clinicians to maintain full attention on patients without compromising the quality of documentation. Dr Shankar Sridharan, chief clinical information officer at GOSH, highlighted the significance of the trial in demonstrating that the NHS can safely adopt AI at scale. He noted the collaborative nature of the project, testing the technology across diverse care settings in London and proving its broad applicability and benefit.

Economic analysis by the York Health Economics Consortium as part of the trial suggests that national adoption of Tortus in A&E departments could enable an additional 9,259 consultations daily, potentially saving £176 million in documentation time and creating £658 million worth of additional capacity annually.

Dr Ahmed Mahdi, an emergency medicine consultant at St George’s University Hospital where Tortus was trialled, praised the technology for improving efficiency in high-pressure settings. He stated, “In such a fast-paced, high-pressured environment, every second counts, and this technology allows us to be more efficient, cut down on admin, and ultimately focus on patient care.”

Further expanding its reach, Tortus is being piloted in community paediatric services at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, aiming to ease administrative demands and enhance patient care. The technology’s capability to filter out extraneous noise is seen as especially promising for busy clinical environments.

Tortus, the first British company to deploy this type of AI technology in NHS hospitals, has secured $4.2 million in seed funding to develop and scale its AI assistant across the NHS. The funding will support enhancements that include clinical coding, prescription ordering, and diagnostic entries, with particular attention to regulatory compliance and safety. As part of its expansion, Tortus has formed a strategic partnership with X-on Health, the largest UK primary care telephony provider, to make its AI assistant available broadly across GP practices regardless of their existing systems. Early independent users report that Tortus can save an average of four minutes per consultation, helping to alleviate workload pressures in primary care.

Dr Vin Diwakar, clinical transformation director at NHS England, summed up the transformative potential by saying, “Allowing clinicians to spend nearly 25% more of their time interacting with patients and less time typing into a computer improves patient care and reduces the burden of administrative tasks.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital plans to implement AI scribe technology widely across its outpatient services starting this autumn, signalling a growing institutional commitment to harnessing AI to enhance healthcare delivery. This innovation marks a significant step in evolving the NHS towards greater efficiency and improved patient-clinician relationships through technological advancement.

📌 Reference Map:

Source: Noah Wire Services