Our partnership with Tortus AI brings together X-on Health’s deep integration into NHS primary care and Tortus’ cutting-edge AI technology to help tackle one of the biggest challenges facing general practice: rising workload and time spent on documentation.
With shared values around safety, real-world usability and transparency, this partnership delivers practical, accountable innovation at scale, starting with an AI-enabled voice assistant that transforms how GPs work, while keeping patient safety front and centre.
Solving real-world problems with ambient scribe technology from Tortus
Across the UK, GPs are under pressure. Time with patients is limited, and administrative tasks often take up hours that could be better spent on direct care.
One major burden is clinical documentation. Surgery Intellect, powered by Tortus, is designed to reduce this strain. Listening to both face-to-face and phone consultations, it generates clinical notes, referral letters and coding in real time for GPs to approve. Overseeing a trial of the scribe, a consultant cardiologist and chief clinical information officer at Great Ormond Street Hospital highlighted that the solution summarises 95% of a doctor’s notes and writes 95% of the patient letter “because it’s my professional responsibility as a clinician to check the notes” (BMJ, 2025, p.182)1. This is a prime example of how AI can be used most effectively in primary care by taking a clinician-in-the-loop approach.
Other early adopters have reported saving an average of four minutes per consultation, time that can be reinvested in patient care. But for GPs, this isn’t just about saving time. It’s about reducing the cognitive load, improving accuracy and allowing them to be more present with patients. As one GP put it:
“It is a real godsend! I can’t stress enough how it has transformed my day – I was much more relaxed and really enjoyed speaking to patients more than I have done in a long while”.
But, we know that no two practices are the same. That’s why our rollout is designed to be flexible, with hands-on support, tailored onboarding and clear governance. We’ve already started pilots in the ICBs where we have approval, and full rollout will continue in line with NHS guidance on AI scribes.
Setting the standard for ambient scribe clinical safety
Central to Tortus AI’s commitment to safety is their ‘CREOLA’ framework, short for Clinical Review Of LLMs and AI. Named in tribute to NASA mathematician Creola Katherine Johnson, CREOLA is a clinician-in-the-loop system designed to rigorously evaluate clinical safety of AI-generated documentation. It systematically identifies and categorises errors such as hallucinations and omissions, quantifying their clinical risk based on their potential to affect diagnosis or treatment.
This process isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. In a recent study, CREOLA reviewed over 49,000 transcript sentences and 13,000 clinical note sentences, offering one of the most detailed evaluations of AI-generated medical content to date. Such meticulous oversight ensures that AI tools like Surgery Intellect can be used in clinical settings with confidence, aligning perfectly with our ethos at X-on Health.
Under latest NHS guidance, all Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) solutions should be compliant with NHS standards and if they generate summarisation, require Class I Medical Device status with the MHRA. Backed by TORTUS technology that is NHS DTAC and DSPT compliant and has UKCA Class I Medical Device status with the MHRA, with Class IIa in progress, Surgery Intellect meets the highest standards for safety, compliance and clinical performance.
Related reading: A framework to assess clinical safety and hallucination rates of LLMs for medical text summarisation
AI meets access: Why it starts with telephony
Telephony remains a vital access point in the NHS, with nearly a quarter of GP appointments still happening over the phone each month (HTN, 2023)2. That’s why our first focus is integrating Surgery Intellect with Surgery Connect, our secure Cloud-based telephony platform used by over 3,500 practices.
By embedding AI into phone workflows, whether it’s a consultation, voicemail or reception call, we’re making documentation easier at the point of contact. But for us, this is just the beginning.
A shared vision for ambient scribe technology in primary care
This partnership unlocks new possibilities. With Tortus’ AI expertise and X-on Health’s integration into GP practice workflows and call data, we see a future where AI can support decision-making and streamline access at every touchpoint —whether patients call, use the NHS App or walk through the front door.
Because we sit at the heart of patient access, managing more than 40 million patient interactions each month, we are uniquely placed to embed AI where it’s needed most. But we’re not just layering technology on top. We’re helping GP surgeries implement these tools so that they work together, with the insight and support they need to do it safely and sustainably.
What makes this partnership work is more than just technology; it’s a shared ethos. Tortus AI leads with patient safety and observability while we bring the experience of operating at scale within NHS primary care. Together, we’re setting a new standard of not just what AI can do, but what it should do.
This is the next chapter in AI for primary care, and we’re proud to be writing it with Tortus AI.
Built for safety. Proven in practice.
- https://www.bmj.com/bmj/section-pdf/1109883?path=/bmj/389/8463/This_Week.full.pdf ↩︎
- https://htn.co.uk/2023/11/02/nhse-publishes-latest-stats-on-gp-appointments-including-percentage-of-video-consultations ↩︎