University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) have jointly awarded a £1.9 million contract for the rollout of ambient voice technology (AVT) across multiple hospital sites, marking a significant investment in AI-driven tools aimed at reducing administrative tasks for clinicians and support staff.
The contract, awarded to AccuRx Limited, follows a competitive procurement process that evaluated five bidders on criteria including quality (60%), social value (10%) and cost (30%). It covers an initial three-year term with an option to extend for a further year, reflecting both trusts’ commitment to modernising digital workflows and improving efficiency in clinical documentation.
Technology to Support Clinical Documentation
Ambient voice technology, powered by artificial intelligence and advanced speech recognition captures clinician-patient conversations and generates structured clinical notes automatically. This reduces the time clinicians spend on typing or dictation, enabling them to focus more on direct patient care.AVT, sometimes referred to as “AI scribing”, has seen increasing interest across health systems globally as a way to tackle the NHS’s persistent administrative burden.
There is early evidence from pilots elsewhere in the NHS suggesting substantial benefits. For example, a recent implementation of a similar AVT at OxfordUniversity Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported that 87 per cent of users saved time on administrative tasks, highlighting the potential productivity gains of these tools.
According to UHL and UHN digital leaders, the technology will be used in both clinical and non-clinical documentation tasks, spanning outpatient assessments, wardrounds, multidisciplinary team meetings and administrative workflows. By capturing spoken interactions and converting them to electronic records, the system aims to streamline processes that historically consumed significant staff time.
Group Collaboration and Strategic Digital Priorities
The ambient voice contract is one of several digital initiatives emerging from the recently formed UHL-UHN Group, a collaboration designed to strengthen services across Leicester, Leicestershire, Rutland, and Northamptonshire. With more than30,000 colleagues and an annual spend approaching £3 billion, the group represents one of the largest acute health provider partnerships in the NHS, with a growing focus on standardising care and accelerating digital transformation.
“This investment in AI-enabled tools demonstrates our ambition to reduce clinicians’ administrative workload, improve documentation accuracy, and ultimately enhance patient care,” a spokesperson for the UHL-UHN Group said. They noted that testing and evaluation of AVT was already underway in several departments before the formal contract award.
Balancing Innovation with Quality and Safety
Despite the promise of AVT, integrating AI into healthcare documentation raises considerations around data security, accuracy, clinical safety and workforce adaptation. NHS trusts must ensure that voice-activated systems maintain patient confidentiality, meet NHS digital standards, and align with GeneralData Protection Regulation (GDPR) and NHS Information Governance requirements.
Providers will also need to monitor the quality and clinical reliability of AI-generated notes, integrating appropriate human review and edit controls. These safeguards are essential to minimise the risk of errors in patient records and to maintain trust among clinicians and patients alike.
Potential Impact on Staff and Patient Experience
Proponents of AVT say the technology can free up valuable clinician time, which NHSEngland’s own digital strategy has highlighted as a key objective in tackling workforce pressures and improving job satisfaction. NHS trusts across England are exploring similar tools, including AI-assisted transcription and scribing functionalities, to reduce the hours doctors and nurses spend on documentation.
For patients, the hoped-for result is not only better continuity of care but also more engaged, less hurried consultations where clinicians can concentrate on listening and clinical reasoning instead of typing. As these AI technologies roll out more widely across the NHS, early adopters like UHL and UHN aim to lead the way in demonstrating practical benefits in everyday healthcare settings.
