The NHS 10-Year Plan aims to reduce administrative burdens on healthcare professionals with AI medical scribes. Heidi Health’s AI scribe supports over 1.5 million NHS appointments monthly and integrates with clinical systems, allowing clinicians to focus on patient care
The UK Government’s NHS 10-Year Plan, unveiled earlier this year, sets out a bold vision for the future of healthcare. Central to that vision is a practical aim: to use tools like AI medical scribes to ease the administrative burden on clinicians, freeing them up to focus on patient care.
For Heidi Health, the new plan is both a recognition of progress already being made and a call to pick up the pace. The need for change couldn’t be clearer. Waiting lists remain long, and staff are under enormous pressure. The plan’s emphasis on rolling out ambient AI – technology that quietly transcribes and organises clinical information in the background – comes at a crucial time.
Heidi Health’s ambient AI scribe has been designed with and for clinicians. It listens to consultations in real time and generates structured clinical documentation including notes, referral letters, care plans and more. Importantly, it works directly within existing clinical systems, supporting staff without overhauling established routines. This kind of digital shift isn’t theoretical; it’s already happening across the NHS.
Heidi is now supporting over 1.5 million NHS appointments each month, partnering with over 15 NHS trusts and used by one in two GPs across the UK. Clinicians are seeing real benefits: time spent on documentation has dropped by 51%, and 78% say it improves their conversations with patients – making it easier to maintain eye contact, listen carefully, and build rapport.
Patients are noticing the difference as well. With clinicians less tied to their screens, appointments often feel more personal and attentive, and patients report feeling better listened to and understood.
These early success stories are exactly what the NHS 10-Year Plan hopes to achieve: not replacing clinicians with AI, but harnessing technology to relieve pressure, save time, and enhance care.
To build on this momentum and turn ideas into action across the NHS, Heidi Health is urging policymakers to:
- Streamline integration: Speed up and simplify how AI scribes are introduced in the NHS, and create a temporary ‘innovation access period’ to cut down on delays.
- Fast-track the Innovator Passport: Make it easier for proven technologies to be adopted by more NHS sites – reducing duplication and saving money.
- Co-design national guidance: Work with clinicians and vendors to shape rules and standards that support safe, effective use of AI in practice.
The direction set by the Plan is right. Now the priority is moving from strategy to real-world results – and partners like Heidi are ready to help deliver at scale.
Modality partnership and Heidi Health: Scaling ambient AI across the NHS
If the underlying ambition of the 10-Year Plan is to ‘take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS’, then the Modality and Heidi Health partnership offers powerful proof of how and why our three policy recommendations can spread proven results system-wide.
With 53 sites serving nearly half a million people, Modality is one of the UK’s biggest GP groups. In 2025, it became the first to roll out Heidi’s AI medical scribe across its entire network – the largest use of this kind of technology in UK primary care to date. The results are compelling: over three-quarters of GPs said they had a stronger connection with patients, and a similar number felt less mentally drained. Patients also felt the difference – many said they felt better heard, and all accepted the use of the AI tool in consultations.
The timing couldn’t be more important. Primary care is stretched by high patient demand and a shortage of staff. One recent survey by the Royal College of GPs shows that 42% of UK GPs may leave the profession in the next five years, mainly due to heavy workloads and burnout. The NHS 10-Year Plan points to AI as part of the solution, and Modality’s rollout of Heidi puts the idea into practice: AI that fits naturally into daily work, lets clinicians reclaim time, reduces stress, and shifts more attention to patients.
The experience with Modality demonstrates why the NHS needs to prioritise Heidi’s three key actions to unlock the full potential of AI scribes.
Streamlining integration: Modality and Heidi showed that smooth implementation is possible – Heidi’s AI scribe slotted straight into Modality’s systems, causing minimal disruption.
Fast-tracking Innovator Passports: Following a successful pilot, the proposed ‘Innovator Passport’ would allow proven AI tools like Heidi to reach further with less duplication, saving both time and NHS resources.
Co-designing guidance: The Modality pilot saw 47 GPs use Heidi for over 2,800 patient appointments. The measurable impact – halving the time spent on documentation during appointments and reducing after-hours admin work by 61% – reflects not just efficiency gains, but deep operational insight from those using and benefiting from the tool. By proactively drawing on this direct experience, future standards can be grounded in what works for clinicians and patients.
For Modality, this partnership is a step towards more sustainable primary care. As Dr Tom Ratcliffe, GP at Modality, explains, “The relentless cognitive load of multitasking during consultations was pushing GPs to the brink – this changes that. By reducing the time spent on documentation, Heidi’s AI scribe has enabled us to focus on what matters most: delivering attentive, high-quality patient care.”
From Heidi’s side, the collaboration shows exactly what the NHS plan aims for: support for clinicians, not just new tech. As Dr Hannah Allen, Heidi’s UK Chief Medical Officer and practising GP, puts it: “The results at Modality show that AI, when implemented thoughtfully, can transform primary care delivery – making the job more sustainable for clinicians and the experience better for patients. As demand on services grows, we need solutions that genuinely work at scale. Heidi is delivering exactly that – and it’s not just more efficient, it’s more human.”
At a time when health services are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, Modality and Heidi’s successful rollout is not just a standalone win – it’s a practical, scalable model for the whole NHS. By acting on these three recommendations, policymakers can spread existing successes system-wide, making what’s already working the norm, rather than the exception.
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