NHS watchdog warns AI scribes are getting drug names and diagnoses wrong
Software that listens in on doctor appointments and writes up notes is making serious medical errors that GPs are missing, according to Healthwatch England.
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 spotted mistakes 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 without stricter human checks.
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 goal is to free up the GP's time, but Healthwatch England, the independent body that gathers patients' views on NHS services, has now flagged cases where the software gets critical details wrong and nobody notices until the patient reads their own notes.
Our 20 August report on the AI scribe reaching 2.7 million patient visits a week showed how quickly these tools have spread. The safety question has arrived just as fast.
What kind of mistakes are we talking about?
The errors go beyond a typo or a misspelled surname. They include wrong medicine names 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, damage to the protective coating around nerve fibres that's associated with multiple sclerosis. She didn't have it. The AI had generated the term incorrectly, and the GP hadn't caught it before the notes were filed.
A wrong diagnosis sitting in a medical record could shape future treatment decisions, cause real distress, or affect how other clinicians interpret a patient's history.
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's saved.
That review step is the weak point. Doctors are busy, summaries are often long, and a plausible-sounding condition can slip through unchallenged.
If your 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 isn't paranoid. It's 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 haven't kept pace.
Check your notes. Flag anything that looks wrong. Don't assume the record is accurate just because a computer wrote it.
What matters most here is the accountability gap: the tools are deployed, the liability is unclear, and the error-checking is landing on already overstretched GPs. That's the part being undersold in how these products are marketed.
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's saved.
