NHS watchdog warns AI scribes are getting drug names and diagnoses wrong

Key points

• Healthwatch England, the NHS patient watchdog, found that AI transcription tools used in GP consultations are producing errors in drug names and medical diagnoses.
• In one reported case, a woman was wrongly told her consultation notes said she had demyelination, a form of serious nerve damage linked to conditions including multiple sclerosis.
• Patients themselves spotted mistakes that their GPs had not caught.
• The errors raise questions about whether AI scribes, software that listens to and automatically writes up doctor-patient conversations, are safe to use without stricter human checks.

The worry is simple. A doctor sees dozens of patients a day. An AI scribe listens to each appointment and, within minutes, produces a written summary that goes into the patient's medical record. The idea is to free up the GP's time. The risk, as Healthwatch England has now flagged, is that the software gets critical details wrong and nobody notices.

Healthwatch England, the independent body that gathers patients' views on NHS services, found cases where the AI produced inaccurate summaries. Patients who later read their own notes caught errors their GPs had not.

What kind of mistakes are we talking about?

The errors go beyond a typo or a misspelled surname. They include the wrong names of medicines and, more alarmingly, incorrect diagnoses entered into a patient's permanent record.

One case, first reported by The Guardian, captures exactly how distressing this can be. A woman reading her consultation notes found they said she had demyelination, a medical term for damage to the protective coating around nerve fibres, a condition associated with multiple sclerosis. She did not have it. The AI had generated the term incorrectly, and the GP had not caught it before the notes were filed.

That kind of error sitting in a medical record could shape future treatment decisions, affect insurance, or simply cause serious anxiety to the patient who reads it.

Should patients be worried?

Not panicked, but alert. AI scribes are already in use across NHS GP practices, and most appointments will produce accurate notes. The concern is that errors do occur, and the current process relies heavily on the GP reviewing the summary before it is saved.

That review step is the weak point. Doctors are busy, the summaries are often long, and an unfamiliar drug name or a plausible-sounding condition can slip through.

If you have a GP appointment and the practice uses an AI scribe, you have the right to read your own medical notes. In England, most patients can access GP records through the NHS App. Reading your summary after an appointment is not paranoid. It is sensible.

What happens next?

Healthwatch England's findings put pressure on NHS England and the practices deploying these tools to tighten oversight. At minimum, that means ensuring every AI-generated summary is carefully checked by a clinician before it enters the record, not treated as a finished document.

The AI scribe market is growing fast. Several companies sell transcription tools specifically to GP practices, and uptake has accelerated as doctors look for ways to cut administrative work. Safety standards and clear accountability rules have not kept pace with that growth.

For now, the practical advice is straightforward: check your notes, flag anything that looks wrong, and do not assume the record is accurate just because a computer wrote it.

Common questions

How do I read my own GP notes after an appointment?

In England, patients can view their GP health record, including consultation notes, through the NHS App or by logging in to the NHS website with an NHS login. Ask your GP practice to confirm you have full record access enabled.

Can I ask my GP not to use an AI scribe during my appointment?

Yes. You can ask. Practices should tell you if they use a transcription tool, and you can request that it not be used for your consultation, or that any AI-generated summary is shown to you before it is saved.