Public split on NHS AI scribes, Healthwatch polling finds

TL;DR:

• YouGov polling of 4,039 adults for Healthwatch England finds public support for AI scribes in the NHS split: 38% in support, 37% opposed — but 21% strongly opposed against 11% strongly supportive.
• 81% want health professionals to tell them AI scribes are in use and seek consent; nearly 90% of recent patients were unaware whether one had been used.
• Comfort collapses for sensitive topics: 48% are comfortable with AI scribes in a routine check, falling to 28% for mental health and 23% for domestic abuse.

The NHS is rolling out AI scribes ‘at pace’ — and new Healthwatch England research suggests public consent is not keeping up. YouGov polling of 4,039 adults, conducted in April, finds support and opposition almost level, with the intensity skewed against: those opposed are far more likely to feel strongly about it.

The consent gap is the headline. Four-fifths of respondents want clinicians to tell them an AI scribe is running and ask permission; nearly 90% of people with an appointment in the past year did not know whether one had been used. There is currently no opt-in consent requirement, though NHS guidance says patients should be told at the start of a session. Patients who discovered scribes after the fact described feeling “violated” — one said they would have withheld information from their GP had they known.

Accuracy stories cut both ways: some patients found AI-generated letters better than before, while one healthcare professional described being given a misdiagnosis by an AI summary that was corrected only because they spotted it themselves. Some 69% said a clear clinician commitment to checking AI output would make them more comfortable.

Trust is the deployment constraint

The polling lands a day after doctors in the West Midlands reported substantial time savings from the Heidi scribe rollout. Read together, the two stories frame the NHS’s real challenge: the efficiency case is strengthening just as the trust evidence weakens. Healthwatch recommends notice at booking, respect for patient requests to switch scribes off during sensitive topics, and consistent national standards from regulators.

Looking forward

These findings feed the national Commission on AI Regulation in Healthcare, which reports to government in late summer 2026 and may prompt the MHRA to issue new rules on AI scribes as medical devices. Between now and then, every trust deploying ‘at pace’ is setting consent practice the regulators may later have to unwind.