Using AI to help prioritise urgent GP care requests

Background

Online consultation systems give patients the option to ask for help from their GP practice by completing a form on the internet. This type of consultation has been available in most English GP practices since May 2020.

GP practices may have to deal with many completed online consultation forms that are received at the same time. This can make it difficult for practice staff to know which patients need urgent or emergency help and can sometimes lead to delays in patients getting the care they need, when they need it.

We want to find out whether computers that have been trained to identify urgent and emergency forms (using Artificial Intelligence or ‘AI’) can reduce these delays. We also want to find out whether AI works in the same way for all patients and whether it’s good value for money.

Approach

Our study will look at an AI system that’s already being used in NHS GP practices.

We will also help members of the public and GP practices to understand what AI is and how it can best be used to benefit both patients and staff.

We will give the system to 20 GP practices that are not currently using it, and then measure the delays that patients experience in receiving urgent and emergency help, for a period of 12 months before and 12 months after the practices start using the AI system.

Then, we’ll compare the results with 20 other GP practices that have not been using the AI system in the same period. We’ll also measure whether and how the AI system affects staff workload, and whether it works in the same way for patients from different backgrounds.

If using the AI system does help to reduce delays in receiving urgent and emergency care, then patients who need urgent and emergency help will receive that sooner.

We will help the NHS and companies that make online consultation systems to decide whether they should use AI.

Project team

BB

Dr Ben Brown

University of Manchester

SC

Dr Sarah Croke

University of Manchester

SG

Dr Sally Giles

Dr Sally Giles

SZ

Dr Salwa Zghebi

University of Manchester

Professor Niels Peek

THIS Institute

EK

Prof Evan Kontopantelis

University of Manchester

Additional co-investigators

• Dr Marcus Ong – Patchs Health
• Prof Richard Body – University of Manchester
• Dr Emma McManus – University of Manchester
• Patricia Walkington – PPI Representative
• Anna Worthington – Langworthy Medical Practice
• Dr Matthew Pickford – Wellfield Health Centre

Have a question?

Prof Niels Peek

Primary Investigator

Funding and ethics

This project is funded by the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) programme, reference number NIHR153121