The North West London Acute Provider Group has shared its intent to procure an ambient voice technology solution, launching a market engagement opportunity.
The group, covering Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, and The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; estimates that a future contract for the solution will run from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2030, a total of three years.
Suppliers were invited to take part in an engagement to help shape its procurement strategy, with an aim to ensure requirements for an upcoming procurement exercise are “realistic, deliverable and aligned to current market capabilities”.
The group shared updates in April on its digital and data plan for 2026/27, covering staff experience, patient and carer experience, business intelligence, pathway management, and infrastructure and corporate systems. According to the collaborative, existing and new projects will be aligned with these themes to help promote consistency in prioritisation, investment, and resource allocation across the trusts. At that time, it noted that AVT procurement was underway and currently moving toward the evaluation stage, with a full business case post-procurement to be developed.
Join HTN on 26 November, 10-11am, for a HTN Now webinar on the topic of sharing best practices from AVT programmes. We’ll take a deep dive into the practicalities and considerations of AVT roll-outs and implementations, from operating procedures and policies, integration and functionality, through to best practices with patient-practitioner interaction.
Register your interest now for HTNX, a unique event to discuss, participate, challenge and focus on emerging technologies, AI, automation, and data, for health and care executives leading the future. Set to take place on 12 May 2027 at the Crowne Plaza in Leeds, the event includes a consideration of the emerging tech lifecycle, AVT in focus, AI blueprints, and more.
Wider trend: AVT
Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust has begun its rollout of Lyrebird Health AVT, initially in the emergency department, gastroenterology, and gynaecology outpatients. The trust has been working in partnership with other South West London trusts and the SWL Acute Provider Collaborative to introduce AVT, the board noted earlier this year. A second phase of the rollout is also planned, to include more outpatient specialties and community services, followed by other clinical areas, Kingston and Richmond shares. Deployment is being coordinated with partner organisations across the region to promote consistency in approach.
Digital Health and Care Wales is launching a £10 million open framework agreement for AVT solutions, aiming to support the adoption of tech to improve clinical documentation processes. The agreement is intended to maintain a “pre-qualified list” of AVT suppliers, who will have to meet conditions enabling their participation and achieve a minimum evaluation threshold. According to DHCW, AVT solutions could include ambient voice capture, speech-to-text transcription, generative AI summarisation, suggested structured clinical coding, intelligent summarisation, automated template population, review and approval workflows, integration with GP systems, and insights and reporting.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have announced Heidi as their preferred supplier for ambient voice technology following a “successful pilot of the solution in a number of departments”. The eight month pilot introduced the technology across the Walsall Healthcare emergency department, medical same day emergency care, dermatology, ENT and audiology, as well as obstetrics and gynaecology. Here, clinicians used Heidi’s solution to generate structured clinical notes from patient consultations, reviewing and approving prior to their addition to the patient record.
