{"id":399427,"date":"2026-01-08T09:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399427\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:18:11","slug":"kirton-lindsey-gp-uses-emma-ai-to-answer-patients-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399427\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirton Lindsey GP uses Emma AI to answer patients’ calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leanne Brownin Kirton Lindsey<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Dr Satpal Shekhawat says AI technology has reduced the amount of time patients are spending on the phone<\/p>\n

An artificial intelligence (AI) receptionist named Emma has been introduced at a North Lincolnshire GP practice to cut call waits – but not everyone wants to talk to her.<\/p>\n

The Kirton Lindsey & Scotter Surgery introduced the advanced technology in November, tasking her with answer calls, collecting information and prioritising appointments.<\/p>\n

Dr Satpal Shekhawat said the practice had previously received complaints from patients about call waiting times and wanted a solution where “nobody was 10th or 15th in a queue”.<\/p>\n

However, some patients have complained that Emma fails to understand dates of birth or the nature of call. Officials said she system would be refined in due course.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emma the AI receptionist has been working at the surgery since November and has handled thousands of calls<\/p>\n

Under the new system, Emma asks a patient about their health problem or query before recording the answer for a doctor or member of staff to review. Most patients are contacted within two or three hours, the BBC was told.<\/p>\n

Shekhawat said: “The quality of the information I’m receiving [from Emma] is good, the relevant information to help me decide what clinically needs doing, is good.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Patient Sandra Dodsworth says Emma kept getting her date of birth wrong<\/p>\n

Despite increasing efficiency, some patients have raised concerns, with Shekhawat admitting there had been “mixed feedback”. He said the software developer would be working to refine the system. <\/p>\n

Sandra Dodsworth said she ended up visited the surgery in person after Emma failed to understand her date of birth.<\/p>\n

“I gave up, I’ve driven down. I’m not happy,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’d rather speak to a person who can understand me because it’s universal really isn’t it, whenever you speak to one of these things, there’s something they don’t understand.”<\/p>\n

Another patient, Alex, said: “I’m in a lot of pain. I just want to speak to a person, get an appointment, but instead I’m just having to scream at a robot.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think healthcare is the right place for it.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Patient Alex believes healthcare “is not the right place” for AI technology<\/p>\n

The surgery, which has about 10,500 patients, insisted AI would not replace human staff and patients could request to be transferred to a person.<\/p>\n

“Any practice needs receptionists because when patients walk in you need somebody on your front desk,” Shekhawat added.<\/p>\n

“The idea was to support them [receptionists], so it frees up their time so they can do other things.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said the new system had attracted attention across the region.<\/p>\n

They said: “We’re excited to see how Kirton Lindsey and Scotter Surgery gets on with its new system, and we know other practices will be watching with interest.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leanne Brownin Kirton Lindsey BBC Dr Satpal Shekhawat says AI technology has reduced the amount of time patients…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-399427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}