NHS AI sparks ‘stress and frustration’ as it will possibly’t perceive Yorkshire sufferers
Docs across Rotherham have rolled out a nationwide system called Emma AI to triage patients in a bid to reduce queues, improve patient satisfaction and save money
A GP surgery has switched to AI – but it struggles to understand the patients (stock)
NHS patients in Rotherham are “experiencing stress and frustration” with a new artificial intelligence receptionist taking calls at their GP surgery as it cannot understand their accents.
Docs across the South Yorkshire market town have rolled out a nationwide system called Emma AI to triage patients in a bid to reduce queues, improve patient satisfaction and save money.
But Healthwatch Rotherham, an independent healthcare watchdog, has warned that patients with regional accents or speech impediments are struggling with the service and are forced to go in person instead.
Manager Kym Gleeson said: “One of the issues is this system can’t always understand what people’s inquiry is about due to their broad Yorkshire accent.
The strong Yorkshire accent has thrown the AI bot (stock)(Image: Drazen Zigic via Getty Images)
“Across South Yorkshire, accents do vary quite a lot. There are different twangs so there’s a lot of variation.
“It seems the system isn’t always able to understand, so that causes frustration.”
Healthwatch said it had spoken in particular to elderly and veterans groups to inform them they can opt out of using the bot EMMA (Enhanced Medical Management Assistant).
Ms Gleeson added: “Practices use websites to triage, but if you prefer to use the telephone, it can be hard to navigate this AI system, especially if you’re feeling quite vulnerable due to ill health.
“Some of the people said they had ended up going to the surgery in person because they felt using a telephone was no longer a comfortable process.”
QuantumLoopAI said it understood patients’ concerns and that there could be an adjustment period after the introduction of the new tech.
A spokesman said: “Emma does not make clinical decisions. She is designed and trained to understand a wide range of accents and dialects and supports 17 languages in addition to English.
“Where she is unable to understand or deal with a patient’s request, the call is transferred to the reception team.
“No caller is required to continue speaking with Emma, and anyone can ask to speak to a member of staff at any time.
“Emma is designed to improve access by answering calls instantly and removing telephone queues.”
It added that more than 90% of patients using Emma had said the system was an improvement.
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