UK Patients Skip GP Appointments as AI Receptionist Fails on Yorkshire Accents

2 articles · Updated · Futurism · Aug 22

Patients in South Yorkshire have abandoned attempts to book GP visits after AI receptionist “Emma” repeatedly failed to understand broad local accents, according to Healthwatch Rotherham.
Healthwatch said the breakdown has pushed some callers to hang up or travel to surgeries in person because the usual phone route no longer felt workable.
Clinics have adopted AI call handlers to answer more calls at once and cut phone waits, part of a wider NHS push to use AI for booking, triage and clinical admin.
QuantumLoopAI, which built Emma, said the system supports 17 languages plus English, is trained on many accents, and should transfer unclear calls to human reception staff on request.