​Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is moving to a full rollout of AI-powered Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) following the largest pilot of its kind in community and mental health services nationally.
The Trust has selected Accurx Scribe, powered by Tandem, which transcribes consultations securely in real time and automatically generates draft clinical notes, summaries and letters. Clinicians review and approve all documentation before it is added to the patient record or shared with patients and other healthcare professionals.
More than 1,000 clinicians will gain access to the technology as part of the three-year contract, with Accurx Scribe set to support an estimated 250,000 appointments annually.
The move follows a six-month pilot, during which clinicians rapidly adopted the technology. In the first month alone, 2,500 consultation notes were generated by 120 active users across 13 services. By the end of the pilot, 150 clinicians had used the system to scribe more than 13,000 consultations and generate over 2,000 letters. The Accurx team worked closely with service leads and users to support adoption and develop service-specific templates.
Julie McCall, Head of Programmes - Digital First at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, said: “As a trust, we have always embraced digital technology – from robotic process automation for referrals to new dental scanner technology for people who cannot travel to clinics.
“The Digital First team works with our clinicians to ensure new technology is used and embedded in a way that improves their working lives, supports patient care and has meaningful outcomes.
“This is one of the technologies where we’ve seen an immediate and sustained impact. The clinicians have welcomed it as making a positive difference to their daily practice and interactions with patients.”
Elliot Howard-Jones, Chief Executive of Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, said the programme forms part of the organisation’s wider productivity and access strategy: “Ambient voice technology enables clinicians to be much more present with patients, and spend less time completing documentation after appointments.
“Reducing administrative burden for our clinical teams is critical if we are to improve access and respond to growing demand for our services.
“This programme reflects our commitment to adopting pioneering innovation responsibly, in a way that supports staff and improves health outcomes for the communities we serve.”
The rollout represents the NHS 10 Year Plan being put into action, with AVT identified as a priority technology to improve productivity, reduce administrative burden and strengthen patient care. The plan encouraged closer collaboration between the NHS and the health technology sector to embed it at-scale.
Across the NHS, Accurx Scribe is now in use in more than 40 Trusts and is available in 97% of GP practices in England, as organisations look to deploy ambient voice technology in line with national guidance. This includes the recently announced rollout across the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Group (UHN) - the largest deployment of AVT in NHS secondary care - giving more than 10,000 clinicians access to the technology and supporting around 2.5 million outpatient appointments a year.
Jack Tabner, General Manager at Accurx, said: “We’re proud to be working with Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust as they scale this programme. Strong leadership and clinical engagement meant Scribe was introduced in a way that frontline teams could adopt quickly and confidently.
“When implemented properly, ambient voice technology improves productivity, strengthens the quality of care and reduces administrative pressure on staff, giving them precious time back. Hertfordshire is showing how that impact can be delivered at-scale.”
Accurx has also recently launched The AVT Academy - a free educational hub designed to support Trusts and ICBs in implementing medical scribing at-scale. As part of this initiative, the teams at UHL and UHN will share their experiences of implementing AVT in a free webinar on Friday 24th April, 1-2pm. To register, and to access additional webinars, playbooks and case studies based on real-world learnings, visit https://www.accurx.com/avt-academy