Barts Health NHS Trust plans to invest in ambient voice technology “at scale” following its participation in a national pilot.
The pilot saw 250 staff members from across the trust using Oracle’s Clinical AI Agent to capture conversations during clinic appointments. An app on smartphones was used to record, allowing for the tech to transcribe, summarise, and turn conversations into clinical notes, reportedly generating letters for patients and GPs.
More than two-thirds of clinicians that took part stated that the quality of their consultations had improved, and more than half reported saving five minutes or more per appointment, Barts Health states.
The success has led to plans to roll the tool out further into inpatient settings, and to extend to outpatients and emergency departments. The trust is also looking to incorporate the tool into its Millennium EPR.
“There aren’t many interventions that genuinely improve both quality of care and productivity, but this has,” said Dominic Cavlan, consultant endocrinologist and acute physician at The Royal London Hospital. “It’s reduced my admin burden, given me more time with patients, and improved how quickly and clearly I can communicate with colleagues in primary care.”
Wider trend: Ambient Voice
HTN was joined by a panel of experts from across the health sector for a focused webinar on the use of ambient scribe technology in NHS trusts. Panellists included Lauren Riddle, transformation programme manager at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare (HIoW); Ynez Symonds, CNIO at HIoW; Dom Pimenta, co-founder and CEO at Tortus AI; and Stuart Kyle, consultant rheumatologist and clinical lead for outpatient transformation at Royal Devon University Hospital. Our panel discussed the practicalities and considerations for ambient scribe implementations, from operating procedures and policies, integration and functionality, through to best practices around patient-practitioner interactions.
NHS England’s Transformation Directorate has published a list of 19 suppliers who have evidenced the criteria required to be part of its self-certified Ambient Voice Technology registry – “a national capability to support safe and effective scaling and adoption of AVT across the health and care system”. The 19 suppliers include 33n, Accurx, Anathem, Aprobrium (Lexacom), Beam Up, Corti, Dictate IT, eConsult, HealthOrbit AI, Heidi Health, Lyrebird Health, Microsoft Dragon, Optum (EMIS), Pungo t/a Joy, Scribetech, Tandem, Tortus, T-Pro, and X-On Health.
South East Coast Ambulance Service has launched a pilot of Tortus’s Ambient Voice solution in its emergency operations centres, looking to free-up clinician time to assist more patients. The tool listens in on conversations, transcribing spoken words into structured medical notes to be checked and approved. According to the trust, this is expected to reduce the amount of time taken by clinicians writing up notes following calls. Alongside the SECAmb pilot, due to run to February 2026, other ambulance services are also committed to testing the technology, including London Ambulance Service and South Western Ambulance Service.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shared outcomes from its pilot of ambient voice technology (AVT), noting it shows “real promise” in helping clinicians save time, reducing stress, and allowing more of a focus on patient care. Taking to LinkedIn, the trust highlights that almost 90 percent of clinicians reported reduced documentation time, also noting that feedback mentioned improved wellbeing and reduced administrative burden. 99.7 percent of patients had consented to the use of AVT, and “found the process efficient and helpful”, it states.
