# Motics: full text for language models > Plain-text copies of the Motics buyer's guides, UK compliance hub, DPIA template, clinic AI glossary, agent pages and pricing, generated from the website's content files. The index of every page is at https://www.motics.ai/llms.txt. Generated: 2026-10-19 # Pricing URL: https://www.motics.ai/pricing/ Motics uses monthly credit allowances rather than separate per-agent subscriptions. - Free: £0 per month, 25 credits, one user. Try Scribe and Chat with a free monthly allowance. Includes: Scribe and Chat agents; Try it on real notes first; No card required. - Starter: £19 per month, 110 credits, one user. For a solo clinician, day to day. Includes: A much higher daily allowance; Monthly credit alerts; Email support. - Team: from £98 per month for 704 shared credits, unlimited users. For clinics putting AI across notes and admin. Includes: Phone, Email and Billing agents; Unlimited users; One shared clinic credit pool; Resize your pool any month. - Scale: from £290 per month for 2,640 shared credits, unlimited users. For clinics automating workflows and compliance. Includes: Audit agent and compliance workflows; Higher automation limits; Clinic usage analytics; Priority support; Guided onboarding. - Enterprise: custom plans. For multi-site groups with bespoke needs. Includes: Custom compliance and reporting; SSO and advanced roles; Procurement and security review; Dedicated success manager. - 1 credit ≈ a Scribe note · 10 chats · 10 emails · phone calls 3 credits/min. - Unused credits roll over — up to 10%. - Extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate — you are never cut off mid-clinic. - Prices exclude VAT; annual billing saves 15%. ## Pricing questions ### What is a credit and what uses one? A credit is the single unit that powers every Motics agent. One credit covers roughly one Scribe note. Chat and email messages are lighter — around 10 per credit — and phone calls use about 3 credits per minute of call time. Every agent draws from the same shared pool, so you never buy separate allowances per tool. ### How many credits will my clinic actually need? As a rule of thumb, a full-time clinician using Scribe day to day uses around 300–350 credits a month. Add roughly 3 credits per minute of phone cover and you have your number. Use the estimator on this page, or [talk to us](https://www.motics.ai/contact/) and we'll model it from your real appointment volume before you commit. ### What happens if we use all our credits mid-month? Your clinic is never cut off. You get alerts as you near your allowance. Extra usage is billed at your plan's pay-as-you-go rate of 13–19p a credit. If upgrading works out cheaper, you can do that instead. ### Do unused credits roll over? Yes — up to 10% of your monthly allowance rolls over into the next month, so a quiet month isn't wasted money. Rollover happens automatically; there's nothing to manage. ### Do regenerated or failed notes use up credits? Generations that fail or that you cancel are automatically refunded — you're only charged for output you actually get. Deliberately regenerating a completed note uses a credit, the same as generating it the first time. ### How does "unlimited users" work? On Team, Scale and Enterprise, you can invite your whole clinic — associates, part-timers, locums, admin staff — at no extra cost. Your clinic size sets the size of your credit pool, not the number of seats. A Saturday-only associate simply draws from the shared pool when they work, instead of costing a full-time licence. ### Which agents are included in each plan? Free and Starter include the Scribe and Chat agents. Team adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents — the full front-desk suite. Scale adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, plus usage analytics and priority support. All agents on your plan share the same credit pool. ### Is there a contract, or can I cancel anytime? Monthly plans are rolling — cancel anytime and keep access until the end of your billing period. Annual billing saves 15% and is billed upfront. There are no long-term contracts required. ### Do you offer NHS, multi-site or enterprise pricing? Yes. Enterprise plans cover multi-site groups, NHS organisations and larger providers with custom credit rates, committed drawdown, SSO, procurement and security review, and a dedicated success manager. [Contact our team](https://www.motics.ai/contact/) for a tailored quote. ### Do prices include VAT? Prices shown exclude VAT, which is added at the standard UK rate at checkout. # Agents ## Scribe Agent URL: https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/ Drafts clinical notes, letters, and reports from consultations for clinician review. Give every clinician 2+ hours back per day. Reduce documentation burden across your practice. Scribe Agent captures consultations and drafts clinical notes automatically, so your team can see more patients without burning out. Available on the Free plan and above (https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Increase capacity without increasing headcount When clinicians spend less time on documentation, they can see more patients. Scribe Agent captures every consultation in real-time, freeing your team to focus on patient care instead of paperwork. - Medical-grade accuracy for clinical conversations - Works in real-time during consultations - Automatic speaker identification - Handles accents and medical terminology ### Capture more billable activity with accurate coding Incomplete documentation means missed revenue. Scribe Agent suggests appropriate clinical codes based on what was actually discussed, so you capture the full value of every consultation. - AI-powered coding suggestions from consultation content - One-click verification with transcript links - ICD-10, ICD-11, and CPT codes supported - Clinician maintains final approval ### Reduce burnout and keep your best clinicians Documentation burden is the top driver of clinician burnout. Give your team the tools to finish notes during clinic hours, not at home. Happier clinicians stay longer. - Notes completed before end of day - No more after-hours documentation - SOAP notes drafted automatically - Specialty-specific templates available ### Consistent, compliant documentation across your team Ensure every clinician produces thorough, standardised notes. Scribe Agent applies your templates and formats consistently, reducing compliance risk and improving audit readiness. Our two-way EHR integration pulls patient context before consultations and saves completed notes directly to the patient record. - Patient context pulled from EHR before consultations - Notes save directly to patient records - Automatic patient record matching - Secure, encrypted, and GDPR compliant ### How it works 1. Clinician starts consultation: Patient encounter begins as normal 2. Scribe records: Audio is transcribed in real-time 3. AI generates notes: Draft notes with coding suggestions 4. Clinician reviews: Quick review, edit, and approval 5. Save to EHR: One-click save to patient record ### Frequently asked questions ### How accurate is the transcription? Scribe Agent achieves greater than 95% accuracy for clear audio in clinical environments. It's built specifically for medical conversations and automatically distinguishes between you and your patient, so you always know who said what. ### Does Scribe Agent make clinical decisions? No. Scribe Agent is a documentation assistant, not a clinical decision tool. It drafts notes and suggests codes for your review. You always have final approval before anything is saved. You make the clinical calls. Scribe does the typing. ### Which EHR systems does it work with? Scribe Agent integrates directly with Meddbase, Cliniko, and Nookal. Once you approve your notes, they save to the patient record with one click. No copy-pasting, no double entry. Need a different EHR? Contact us about custom integrations. ### How much time will I actually save? Clinicians typically save 2+ hours per day on documentation. That's time you can spend with patients, or more importantly, time you can spend not working. Most users tell us they stop taking notes home within the first week. ### Is my patient data secure? Yes. Scribe Agent is fully GDPR compliant and meets NHS Digital standards. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with complete audit trails. Your patients' information is protected to the highest healthcare standards. ### How do the coding suggestions work? As you consult, Scribe Agent identifies relevant ICD-10, ICD-11, and CPT codes based on what's discussed. Each suggestion links directly to the transcript, so you can verify it matches in seconds. You approve every code before it's used. ### Can I customise the note format? Absolutely. Set up templates for your specialty, configure your preferred SOAP note structure, and adjust letter formats to match your practice style. Scribe Agent adapts to how you work, not the other way around. ### What if it gets something wrong? Everything Scribe Agent produces is a draft for your review. You can edit any part of the transcription or notes before approving. Think of it as a first pass that you refine, rather than a final document you have to accept. ## Phone Agent URL: https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/ Handles configured inbound and outbound call workflows, including routine enquiries and appointment booking. Your AI receptionist that never misses a call. While you're with a patient, three people called. Two hung up. One went to your competitor. Phone Agent makes sure that never happens again. Available on the Team plan and above (https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Patients book while you're with patients Stop choosing between the patient in front of you and the one on the phone. Callers check your availability and book themselves, directly into your patient management system. - Real-time availability from your calendar - Patients choose their preferred time - Appointment created instantly - Confirmation sent to the patient ### Know what happened without listening to every call Every call is recorded, transcribed, and summarised. See who needs a callback, who was frustrated, and what action is needed, all at a glance. - Full recordings you can replay - AI summary of every conversation - Flags urgent or unhappy callers - Clear action items for follow-up ### Conversations that put callers at ease No robotic voice. No frustrating menus. Phone Agent has natural, warm conversations. Callers feel heard from the first hello. - Natural, human-sounding voice - Handles interruptions and questions - Professional tone throughout - Multiple languages supported ### Frequently asked questions ### What happens when someone calls? Phone Agent answers with a natural voice, asks how it can help, and handles the call. It can book appointments, answer questions, take messages, or transfer to your team if needed. Every call is recorded and summarised so you know exactly what happened. ### Can it actually book appointments? Yes. Phone Agent connects to leading patient management systems and books directly into your calendar. Callers check availability, choose a time, and the appointment appears in your diary instantly. They get a confirmation, you get a notification. No callbacks needed. ### What about calls outside office hours? Phone Agent works 24/7. Evenings, weekends, bank holidays. Patients can book appointments or leave messages anytime. You'll see everything when you're back, and you'll never lose an enquiry because someone called at the wrong time. ### How much does it cost? Clinic plans start from £98 a month and include Phone Agent alongside notes, email and billing. A typical 3-minute call costs about £1.26. No contract. Most practices find that one extra booked patient a month more than covers the cost. See the [pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) for plan details. ### How does it know about my practice? You set it up with your details: opening hours, services, practitioners, how you want calls handled. Phone Agent uses this to answer questions accurately. You can update it anytime as things change. ### What if someone needs to speak to a real person? Phone Agent transfers the call to your team. You set the rules for when this happens, like urgent medical concerns or specific requests. Routine calls stay automated; your team handles the exceptions. ### How will I know what happened on calls? Instant notifications for bookings and urgent calls. Every call has a recording, transcript, and one-paragraph summary. You can see at a glance who called, what they wanted, and what needs follow-up. ## Email Agent URL: https://www.motics.ai/agents/email/ Drafts replies to patient and administrative emails; nothing sends until staff approve it. Patient emails, drafted in seconds. Your inbox is full and patients are waiting. Email Agent reads every patient enquiry and drafts the reply in seconds. Your team checks it and approves it, and only then does it send. Available on the Team plan and above (https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### A reply ready before the patient gives up Most patient emails are simple: appointment requests, directions, what to bring. Email Agent drafts the reply straight away, so your team approves and sends it in moments instead of writing from scratch. - Draft ready within seconds - Personalised with patient name and context - Professional tone that matches your practice - Links to booking, forms and resources ### From email to action, once you approve Email Agent doesn't just draft the reply. It prepares the action behind it. Appointment requests come with a slot ready to book, cancellations with the slot ready to reopen, and document requests with the right forms attached. - Appointments booked in Cliniko on approval - Cancellations processed and slots reopened on approval - Forms and documents attached to the draft - Follow-up reminders suggested ### Know exactly what's happening with every email See every incoming message, the draft waiting for it, and what happened once it was approved. Nothing gets lost, nothing gets forgotten. - Real-time inbox dashboard - AI summaries of every conversation - Action log for audit trails - Flagged items for human review ### Frequently asked questions ### How does Email Agent connect to my inbox? Email Agent connects securely to your existing email (Gmail, Outlook, or practice email). You grant read and send permissions, so approved replies go from your own address, and it starts drafting replies to incoming patient messages immediately. Your credentials are never stored. ### Does Email Agent send emails on its own? No. Every reply waits as a draft until someone on your team approves it. Nothing goes to a patient without your say-so. ### Will patients know they're talking to AI? Every reply is checked and approved by your team before it sends, so it reads the way your team would write. You can include a disclosure if you prefer. ### What if an email needs a human response? Every email gets a draft for your team to approve. Complex, sensitive or urgent emails are also flagged, so the right person sees them first. You set the rules for what gets escalated. ### Can it book appointments from email? Yes, with your approval. When a patient asks for an appointment, Email Agent checks your Cliniko calendar and drafts a reply offering available times. When the patient picks one, it prepares the booking and the confirmation for your team to approve. The patient gets a confirmation, you get a notification. ### How does it know about my practice? You configure Email Agent with your services, opening hours, common questions, and how you want different enquiry types handled. It also reads patient context from your EHR to give personalised answers. ### What about patient data security? Email Agent processes data securely and is fully GDPR compliant. Patient information is encrypted in transit and at rest. We never store email content longer than needed for processing. ### How much does it cost? Pricing is based on email volume. Most practices find that the staff time saved more than covers the cost. Contact us for a quote based on your typical monthly email volume. ### How quickly can I get started? Setup takes about 30 minutes. Connect your email, configure your preferences, and Email Agent starts drafting replies. Most practices are fully operational within a day. ## Billing Agent URL: https://www.motics.ai/agents/billing/ Supports insurance, pre-authorisation, invoicing, and billing workflows. Get paid 80% faster with zero admin. Insurance claims rejected. Invoices unpaid. Hours wasted chasing payments. Billing Agent handles the entire revenue cycle so you can focus on patients, not paperwork. Available on the Team plan and above (https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Claims submitted and paid without lifting a finger Billing Agent extracts the right codes, formats claims correctly, and submits to insurers automatically. Rejections are flagged, corrected, and resubmitted. - Auto-extracts procedure and diagnosis codes - Validates claims before submission - Tracks claim status in real-time - Resubmits rejected claims automatically ### Self-pay invoices that actually get paid Patients receive clear invoices with easy online payment options. Polite reminders go out automatically until payment is received. - Instant invoice generation after appointments - Online payment via card or bank transfer - Automated reminder sequences - Payment plans for larger amounts ### Every payment in its place, automatically When money arrives, Billing Agent matches it to the right invoice and updates your accounting software. No manual data entry, no reconciliation headaches. - Payments matched to invoices instantly - Syncs with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage - Partial payments tracked automatically - End-of-month reports generated ### Frequently asked questions ### How does Billing Agent submit insurance claims? Billing Agent extracts procedure codes, diagnosis codes, and patient details from your appointments in Cliniko. It formats claims according to insurer requirements and submits electronically. Most claims are submitted within hours of appointment completion. ### What happens when a claim is rejected? Billing Agent automatically reviews the rejection reason, corrects the issue if possible, and resubmits. Common issues like coding errors or missing information are fixed automatically. Complex rejections are flagged for your review with suggested corrections. ### Which insurers do you work with? Billing Agent works with major UK health insurers including Bupa, AXA, Aviva, Vitality, and others. We're constantly adding new insurers. Contact us to check if your specific insurers are supported. ### How do patient invoices work? After a self-pay appointment, Billing Agent automatically generates and sends an invoice to the patient with a secure online payment link. Patients can pay by card or bank transfer. Reminders are sent automatically until payment is received. ### How does reconciliation work? When a payment arrives in your bank account or Stripe, Billing Agent matches it to the correct invoice and marks it as paid. This updates both your EHR and accounting software automatically. No manual data entry required. ### Which accounting software do you support? Billing Agent integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage. Invoices, payments, and refunds sync automatically. We can work with other accounting systems through our API. ### What about payment plans? Billing Agent can offer payment plans for larger invoices. You set the rules for when plans are offered and what terms are available. Payments are collected automatically via direct debit. ### How much does it cost? Pricing is based on claims and invoices processed. Most practices find that faster payments and reduced admin time provide significant ROI. Contact us for a quote based on your billing volume. ## Audit Agent URL: https://www.motics.ai/agents/audit/ Reviews clinical documentation against clinic-defined quality and compliance criteria. Clinical documentation audits that run themselves. CQC inspection coming? Concerned about note quality? Audit Agent reviews clinical documentation against your criteria, flags issues, and gives you actionable insights. No more sampling five notes and hoping for the best. Available on the Scale plan and above (https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Stop guessing about documentation quality Manual audits are slow, inconsistent, and sample too few notes. Audit Agent reviews every note against your criteria, scores them consistently, and tells you exactly where the problems are. - AI-powered analysis against your criteria - Consistent scoring across all notes - Evidence-based findings with citations - Actionable improvement recommendations ### Walk into your CQC inspection with confidence Regulators want evidence that documentation meets standards. Audit Agent provides detailed audit trails, scoring matrices, and improvement tracking that demonstrates your commitment to quality. - Audit trails for regulatory evidence - Customisable criteria for CQC, HCPC, GMC - Historical trending to show improvement - Export reports for inspection preparation ### Identify exactly where clinicians need support Run audits before and after training to measure impact. Identify documentation patterns across clinicians. Give specific, evidence-based feedback instead of vague observations. - Per-clinician quality scores - Specific citations for coaching - Training effectiveness measurement - Standardisation across the team ### Frequently asked questions ### What can Audit Agent actually review? Audit Agent can analyse clinical notes, AI-generated summaries, and raw session transcripts. It compares documentation against your defined criteria and identifies gaps, inconsistencies, and quality issues. You choose which content types to include in each audit. ### How do I define audit criteria? You create criteria based on what matters to your practice. This could be safety documentation, consent recording, treatment rationale, or any other standard. Each criterion can use numeric scoring, pass/fail, or narrative assessment. You can also set priority levels and weightings. ### Is this suitable for CQC inspections? Yes. Audit Agent provides detailed audit trails, evidence-based findings, and exportable reports. You can run audits against CQC-specific criteria and demonstrate quality improvement over time. Many practices use it to prepare for and evidence compliance during inspections. ### How many notes can I audit at once? Each audit can review up to 8 notes simultaneously. This provides a meaningful sample while keeping analysis costs reasonable. For larger audits, you can run multiple audit jobs or schedule regular reviews. ### Can I reuse audit criteria? Yes. You can save audit specifications as templates and reuse them for consistent, repeatable audits. This ensures the same standards are applied across different time periods, teams, or clinicians. ### What do the results look like? You can choose between matrix view (detailed scores for each note against each criterion) or aggregate view (executive summary with critical insights). Both include evidence citations, improvement recommendations, and exportable data. ### How does AI scoring work? Audit Agent uses advanced AI to analyse notes against your criteria. It reads the documentation, evaluates each criterion, provides a score with rationale, and cites specific text as evidence. The AI is calibrated for consistent, reproducible scoring. ### What about data security? Audit Agent processes data securely and is fully GDPR compliant. Clinical notes are encrypted in transit and at rest. We use enterprise-grade AI infrastructure and never retain patient data longer than needed for processing. # Buyer's guides ## The Best AI Receptionists for UK Clinics in 2026 (Compared) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/best-ai-receptionists-uk-clinics/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. For UK private and allied-health clinics in 2026, the main AI receptionists are Motics Phone Agent, Ivy by Verbalise and Aeva AI; InTouchNow, QuantumLoopAI EMMA and X-on Surgery Assist are built for NHS GP surgeries. An AI receptionist answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules or cancels appointments in your practice management system. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: it books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, keeps patient data in the UK and publishes its prices. Key takeaways: - Per the HMDG Private Practice Barometer (700+ UK clinic owners), Motics is the most-mentioned AI receptionist (37 mentions) and the second most-mentioned AI tool overall in the survey. - Pricing transparency varies: Motics publishes its plan prices (the Phone Agent is included from £98 a month on Team, with calls drawn from a shared credit pool), Ivy by Verbalise publishes full rates (£147/month + 55p per minute, inc. VAT) and Aeva publishes call-volume tiers from £139 a month. The three NHS-focused tools are quote-only. - Motics, Ivy and Aeva book into private-practice systems such as Cliniko, and Motics also books into Nookal and Meddbase. InTouchNow, EMMA and X-on are built around NHS GP workflows. - Missed calls are expensive: a routine new-patient enquiry is worth a course of treatment, and at clinics offering surgical work a single self-pay enquiry can lead to treatment worth £11,000 or more — even a small answer-rate improvement pays for the software. - Patients are increasingly comfortable with AI in healthcare — King's College London found one in seven people in the UK have already used AI chatbots for health advice instead of contacting a GP. ### AI receptionists for UK clinics compared | Tool | Built for | Public pricing | Books into your system | UK compliance highlights | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics Phone Agent | Private clinics & allied health (physio, podiatry, osteopathy, private GP) | From £98 a month on Team (704 shared credits); calls 3 credits a minute from a shared credit pool | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data | | Ivy (Verbalise) | Established MSK clinics; customised onboarding | £147/month + 55p/minute (inc. VAT) | Cliniko | UK GDPR (stated on site) | | Aeva AI | Cliniko clinics; overflow and after-hours cover | £139 to £399 a month for 100 to 500 calls; £1.70 a call over the allowance; VAT not stated | Cliniko | Not stated publicly | | InTouchNow | NHS GP practices; AI + human hybrid | Pricing on request | Works alongside EMIS, SystmOne, Accurx | Information governance documentation available on request | | QuantumLoopAI EMMA | NHS GP surgeries; 8am call surge | Pricing on request | Passes requests to practice workflow (e.g. Accurx) | DTAC (vendor-stated), GDPR, DPIA conducted | | X-on Surgery Assist | NHS practices on X-on telephony | Pricing on request | Works with existing clinical systems & NHS App | DTAC (vendor-stated), built on Microsoft Azure AI | ### Why clinics are replacing voicemail with AI Every clinic owner knows the pattern: the phone rings while every member of staff is with a patient, the call goes to voicemail, and the patient books with whoever answers next. Reception teams are at capacity, and nobody is at the desk on evenings and weekends. An AI receptionist answers every call instantly — including the Saturday morning enquiry and the 7pm callback — and books the appointment while the caller is still on the line. The economics are stark for private practice. A routine new-patient physiotherapy enquiry might be worth a few hundred pounds over a course of treatment, but a single self-pay surgical enquiry — a private hip replacement, for example — can lead to treatment typically priced around £11,000–£18,500 in the UK (national provider price data, May 2025). If better call coverage captures even one of those a year, the software has paid for itself many times over. Patients have moved faster than the industry expected, too. Research from King's College London published in May 2026 found that one in seven people in the UK have used AI chatbots for health advice instead of contacting a GP or other NHS service. Speaking to a well-designed AI on the phone is no longer the adoption barrier it was even a year ago — what matters is whether the AI can actually complete the booking rather than just take a message. ### Two different markets: private clinics vs NHS GP surgeries The UK AI-receptionist market has split cleanly in two, and most buying mistakes come from picking a tool built for the other side. - Private and allied-health clinics (physiotherapy, podiatry, osteopathy, chiropractic, private GP, aesthetics) need the AI to book directly into practice management systems like Cliniko, Nookal, or Meddbase, take deposits, and convert enquiries into appointments. Motics, Ivy, and Aeva compete here. - NHS GP surgeries need to flatten the 8am call surge, capture structured patient requests, and hand them to care navigators — without giving clinical advice. EMMA, InTouchNow, and X-on Surgery Assist compete here, and DTAC certification and EMIS/SystmOne workflows matter more than booking conversion. Independent data point: the HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026, a survey of 700+ UK clinic owners, found 60% of clinics are open to AI but 75% don't know which tools to use. Among AI receptionists, Motics was the most-mentioned tool (37 mentions), with Abby second (11 mentions). Reliability uncertainty and not knowing where to start (18% each) — not cost — top the adoption barriers. ### The six AI receptionists compared in detail We've ordered the six by fit for UK private clinics — booking capability, integrations, data protection, and pricing transparency, as set out in 'How we chose' below — not by survey mentions alone. ### Which Motics plan fits - Team, from £98 a month (704 shared credits): the Phone Agent starts here, with the Email and Billing agents. The entry pack holds 704 credits in one shared clinic pool, calls use 3 credits a minute, and you can add unlimited users. Extra usage is £0.14 a credit, so a busy month is never cut off mid-clinic. - Scale, from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits): for busier phones and more automation. Adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. Extra usage is £0.13 a credit. - Enterprise, custom pricing: for multi-site groups that need SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. - Free (£0) and Starter (£19 a month): Scribe and Chat only, with 25 and 110 credits a month. Free needs no card and Starter has no contract, so you can try Motics before you add the Phone Agent on Team. What the comparison shows: Motics books calls straight into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, keeps patient data in the UK and publishes its prices. The Phone Agent shares one credit pool with the Scribe, Email and Billing agents, with unlimited users and no per-seat fees, so one plan covers reception, notes and admin. Annual billing is 15% cheaper. See your monthly cost with the calculator on [our pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Phone Agent Best for: UK private clinics and allied-health practices that want calls answered and booked 24/7, with plans sized to call volume rather than per-seat licences Pricing: Included from the Team plan: from £98 a month ex VAT (704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from one clinic credit pool shared with the Scribe, Email and Billing agents, with unlimited users. Extra usage is billed at the plan's credit rate; annual billing is 15% cheaper. Motics Phone Agent is a 24/7 AI receptionist built specifically for UK clinics. It answers every inbound call instantly, books, reschedules, and cancels appointments directly in Cliniko, Nookal, or Meddbase, handles FAQs (opening hours, prices, parking, what to bring), and escalates anything complex to your team with a structured message. It also makes outbound calls for follow-ups and recalls. In the HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — a survey of 700+ UK clinic owners — Motics was the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the survey. Pricing is credit-based: calls draw from a clinic credit pool sized to your actual usage, and the same pool works across the whole Motics platform (scribe notes, emails, billing tasks) — so spend follows what the clinic actually uses as its needs grow, not how many people log in. Patient data stays in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product, and this guide is written by our team. We've kept the comparison factual and linked every claim — judge it against the other vendors' pages directly. Strengths: - Published prices from £98 a month, with unlimited users and no per-seat fees; credits are shared across the whole agent suite - Direct two-way booking into Cliniko, Nookal, and Meddbase - UK data residency, ISO 27001-aligned security, UK GDPR, and no AI training on patient data - Part of a wider agent suite (Scribe, Audit, Email, Billing), so reception, notes, and admin share one platform - Setup can take as little as an afternoon — test it in a sandbox before going live Limitations: - Usage-based pricing means it helps to estimate monthly call volume when budgeting - Built for private practice: it integrates with PMS platforms like Cliniko rather than NHS clinical systems (EMIS, SystmOne), so it isn't designed for NHS GP surgeries - Best results need your services, prices, and FAQs configured during setup - The Phone Agent starts on the Team plan; the Free and Starter plans cover Scribe and Chat only ### 2. Ivy by Verbalise Best for: Established UK MSK and allied-health clinics, with customised onboarding for each practice Pricing: £147/month + 55p per minute, inclusive of VAT. Ivy is a British AI phone receptionist from Verbalise, aimed at UK MSK, physiotherapy, and podiatry clinics. It answers calls 24/7 with UK-regional accents, books, reschedules, and cancels appointments in Cliniko, and can take payment over the phone. Verbalise runs a high-touch onboarding model — the company caps new practice onboarding at four per week to customise each deployment. Ivy publishes its full rates (£147/month plus 55p/minute, VAT inclusive); the fixed monthly fee is the main consideration for clinics with low call volumes. Strengths: - Published pricing: £147/month + 55p per minute (inc. VAT) - Cliniko booking, rescheduling, cancellation, and payment collection - UK company with UK-regional voice options - Customised onboarding for each practice Limitations: - £147/month base fee plus 55p/minute is a significant fixed commitment at low call volumes - Cliniko is the only practice management integration listed - Onboarding capacity is capped (four new practices per week), so there may be a wait ### 3. Aeva AI Best for: Cliniko clinics looking for overflow and after-hours call cover Pricing: Call-volume tiers: 100 calls £139, 200 calls £199, 350 calls £299, 500 calls £399 a month; £1.70 a call over the allowance. VAT not stated. Read from Aeva's pricing page (GBP), 10 Oct 2026. Aeva AI is an AI phone receptionist listed in Cliniko's connected-apps directory. It answers calls around the clock, recognises returning patients, books and reschedules directly in Cliniko, can collect deposits, and supports configurable scripts and voices. It's positioned for overflow and after-hours cover. Aeva publishes call-volume pricing in GBP (from £139 a month for 100 calls). It doesn't publish ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials, so ask about data residency and UK GDPR arrangements during a demo. Strengths: - Direct Cliniko sync including rescheduling and cancellations - Returning-patient recognition and deposit collection - Configurable scripts and voices; overflow and after-hours call handling Limitations: - £1.70 a call over the allowance; VAT not stated - ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and UK data residency not published — ask before trialling - Country focus and support hours not clearly stated ### 4. InTouchNow Best for: NHS GP practices, with conversational AI backed by a human team Pricing: Pricing on request (not published). InTouchNow grew out of a long-established Hertfordshire family call-handling business (the company cites 30 years in the industry) and now offers conversational AI voice agents for GP practices, with an AI + human hybrid option staffed by trained NHS receptionists. It answers and triages calls 24/7, books appointments, and provides call analytics, with support for 200+ regional accents and 33 languages. Its workflows reference the systems NHS practices already run — EMIS, SystmOne, Accurx, Surgery Connect, Klinik, and Anima — and each deployment is custom-trained on practice protocols. In May 2026 InTouchNow joined the Primary Care Accelerator to scale AI voice reception across UK GP practices. Pricing and specific IG certifications aren't published, so request both during evaluation. Strengths: - AI + human hybrid model — trained NHS receptionists back up the AI - Workflows reference EMIS, SystmOne and Accurx - 200+ regional accents and 33 languages - 30 years in call handling (company-stated) Limitations: - No public pricing - Built around NHS general practice — less relevant for private allied-health clinics - Specific certifications (DTAC, ISO 27001) not visible on the public site ### 5. QuantumLoopAI EMMA Best for: NHS GP surgeries, capturing and routing patient requests for care navigators Pricing: Pricing on request (not published). EMMA is an AI receptionist for NHS general practice whose rollout has drawn national press attention, including BBC coverage of a Lincolnshire surgery's deployment; QuantumLoopAI itself states the platform covers millions of patients. It answers hundreds of concurrent calls instantly, captures the patient's request as structured notes, and routes it into the practice workflow — deliberately stopping short of clinical advice or triage, which stays with humans. The vendor describes it as the first DTAC-certified AI reception platform, states GDPR compliance with a completed DPIA, and automatically follows up dropped calls. EMMA is built for NHS general practice. Its model is capture-and-route: it records each request and routes it to the practice, and practice staff complete any booking. Strengths: - Deployed in NHS general practice, with national press coverage of its rollout - Answers hundreds of concurrent calls - DTAC certification and DPIA documentation (vendor-stated) - Automatic follow-up of dropped calls Limitations: - NHS GP surgeries only — not designed for private clinics - By design it captures and routes requests rather than completing bookings or triage (the vendor's own positioning), so requests still need human processing - No public pricing ### 6. X-on Health Surgery Assist Best for: NHS practices already using X-on's Surgery Connect telephony Pricing: Pricing on request (chargeable add-on to X-on's platform). Surgery Assist is X-on Health's 24/7 AI care-navigation assistant, delivered as a phone/IVR self-service layer and website chatbot for NHS GP practices. Rather than holding a free-flowing conversation, it signposts patients to the right service — appointments, prescriptions, test results, the NHS App, or online consultation tools — and works alongside the practice's existing clinical system and telephony. It is NHS DTAC-certified and built on Microsoft Azure AI, and X-on's wider Surgery Connect platform serves 3,500+ GP practices with EMIS, SystmOne, and Vision integration. X-on's own case studies report missed calls reduced by 65% at one practice — a vendor figure, so treat it accordingly. Strengths: - Add-on to X-on's Surgery Connect telephony - NHS DTAC certification; Azure AI foundation - Self-service for the highest-volume request types - Surgery Connect platform used by 3,500+ GP practices Limitations: - Signposting and self-service rather than a conversational booking agent - NHS-centric — not aimed at private clinics - No public pricing; sold as part of the X-on ecosystem ### How we chose We compared every AI receptionist with meaningful UK clinic adoption that we could verify in June 2026, drawing on three source types: each vendor's own website and documentation (for pricing, integrations, and compliance claims), the independent HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 survey of 700+ UK clinic owners (for adoption data), and press or directory listings such as Cliniko's connected-apps directory (for integration verification). Every competitor price quoted was read directly from the vendor's public pricing page on 10 June 2026 (Aeva's on 10 October 2026); where a vendor doesn't publish pricing we say so rather than guessing. Motics' pricing is described per its credit-based model, with live rates on the Motics pricing page. Claims we could only find in vendor marketing are labelled as vendor claims. The HMDG survey also records an AI receptionist called "Abby" (11 mentions) — the survey doesn't identify the vendor, and we couldn't confirm which product it refers to, so we've left it out of the detailed comparison rather than guess. Motics is our own product. We've disclosed that in its review, applied the same criteria to it as to every other tool — including listing its limitations — and linked sources so you can check our claims. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is an AI receptionist for clinics? An AI receptionist is software that answers your clinic's phone calls with a natural-sounding voice, understands what the caller needs, and completes tasks like booking, rescheduling, or cancelling appointments in your practice management system. Unlike voicemail or a call-answering service that takes messages, a good AI receptionist resolves the call there and then, 24 hours a day, and hands anything complex to your team with a structured summary. ### How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK? Pricing models vary more than headline prices. Motics includes the Phone Agent from its Team plan from £98 a month ex VAT (704 shared credits); calls use 3 credits a minute from a clinic credit pool that also pays for Motics' Scribe, Email and Billing agents. Ivy by Verbalise publishes rates of £147 per month plus 55p per minute, VAT inclusive. Aeva publishes call-volume tiers from £139 a month for 100 calls, VAT not stated. InTouchNow, QuantumLoopAI EMMA and X-on Surgery Assist price on request. For comparison, an outsourced call-answering service typically charges a base fee plus £2–£3 per call. To see what Motics would cost for your call volume, use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Can an AI receptionist book appointments directly into Cliniko? Yes — that's now table stakes for the private-clinic tools. Motics Phone Agent, Ivy by Verbalise, and Aeva AI all book, reschedule, and cancel appointments directly in Cliniko. Motics also integrates with Nookal and Meddbase. If you use another practice management system, check the vendor's integration list before trialling — booking into the diary is the difference between an AI receptionist and an expensive answering machine. ### What happens when a patient calls with an emergency? Every credible healthcare AI receptionist is designed to recognise urgency and escalate rather than advise. NHS-focused tools like EMMA explicitly direct urgent calls to 999 or 111 and pass complex cases to humans; private-clinic tools like Motics escalate to your team with an immediate alert. No AI receptionist should give clinical advice — its job is access, capture, and signposting, with medical decisions staying with clinicians. ### Are AI phone agents GDPR compliant? Where is call data stored? It varies by vendor, which is why this should be your first demo question. Motics stores patient data in the UK, processes it under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic, has security aligned to ISO 27001, and doesn't use patient data to train AI models. Verbalise states GDPR compliance for Ivy. EMMA states GDPR compliance, DTAC certification, and a completed DPIA. Aeva states GDPR compliance but doesn't publish ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials (checked 10 Oct 2026). Ask every vendor: where is data stored, who processes it, is a data processing agreement provided, and is patient data used for AI training? ### Will patients actually talk to an AI on the phone? Increasingly, yes. King's College London research published in May 2026 found one in seven people in the UK have already used AI chatbots instead of seeing a GP. In practice, patients care most about getting an answer instead of voicemail — an AI that picks up instantly at 7pm beats a callback at 9am tomorrow. Best practice (echoed in NHS guidance) is to be transparent that it's an AI and always offer a route to a human. ### How long does it take to set up an AI receptionist? For private-clinic tools the realistic answer is days, not months: Motics setup can be completed in an afternoon — connect your PMS, confirm your services and FAQs, test calls in a sandbox, then go live. Ivy by Verbalise runs a customised onboarding capped at four new practices a week, so allow for a short queue. NHS deployments (EMMA, X-on, InTouchNow) involve practice workflow design and information-governance sign-off, so timelines run longer. ### What do missed calls actually cost a clinic? More than most owners think. A routine new-patient enquiry is worth a course of treatment, and a single self-pay surgical enquiry — a private hip replacement, say — can lead to treatment typically priced around £11,000–£18,500 in the UK. If your clinic misses a meaningful share of inbound calls (reception teams at capacity often do), recovering even a fraction of those pays for an AI receptionist many times over. You can estimate your own number with the [Motics missed-call calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/). ### Sources - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — AI software & tools in UK physiotherapy clinics (700+ clinic owners surveyed)](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [King's College London — One in seven people have used AI instead of seeing a GP (May 2026)](https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/one-in-seven-people-have-used-ai-instead-of-seeing-a-gp-study-finds) - [Verbalise — Ivy AI receptionist pricing and features (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://verbalise.ai/) - [Cliniko connected apps — Ivy AI Receptionist](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/ivy-ai-receptionist/) - [Cliniko connected apps — Aeva AI](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/aeva-ai/) - [InTouchNow — AI + human hybrid for GP practices](https://intouchnow.ai/ai-human-hybrid-for-gp-practices/) - [QuantumLoopAI — EMMA for GP surgeries](https://www.quantumloopai.com/gp-surgeries-benefits) - [QuantumLoopAI — EMMA platform overview](https://www.quantumloopai.com/) - [InTouchNow — platform overview (accents, languages, company background)](https://intouchnow.ai/) - [InTouchNow joins Primary Care Accelerator (May 2026)](https://www.lovebusinesseastmidlands.com/love-business-news/2026/05/22/intouchnow-joins-primary-care-accelerator-to-scale-ai-voice-reception-for-uk-gp-practices/) - [X-on Health — Surgery Assist introduction](https://help.x-onweb.com/en/articles/392869-surgery-assist-introduction) - [X-on Health — Surgery Assist case studies](https://www.x-on.co.uk/surgery-assist) - [BBC News — Will AI receptionist Emma win over GP patients?](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07xgv07vzvo) - [PrivateHealth.co.uk — Private hip replacement surgery costs](https://www.privatehealth.co.uk/hip-replacement-surgery/costs/) - [GP Practice Resources — Surgery Connect / X-on Health case results](https://gppracticeresources.co.uk/categories/telephony-communications/surgery-connect) - [Motics — Phone Agent pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Aeva — pricing (GBP selected) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.aevaai.com/pricing) ## The Best AI Scribes for Physiotherapists in the UK (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/best-ai-scribes-physiotherapy-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. For UK physiotherapists in 2026, the AI scribes to compare are Motics Scribe Agent, Heidi, Preve, PatientNotes, CliniScribe and Twofold. An AI scribe listens to your consultation (with patient consent) and drafts the structured clinical note for you to review and file in your practice management system. For UK physio clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: physio-first templates, Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration, UK data residency, and a free plan to start. Key takeaways: - Clinicians spend about a third of their working hours — roughly 13.5 hours a week — on documentation (2023 NHS staff study), and NHS Staff Survey data cited by the CSP shows 69% of physiotherapy staff work unpaid overtime, much of it writing notes. - Heidi (52 mentions) and Motics (37 mentions) are the two most-mentioned AI tools in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer of 700+ UK clinic owners. - Pricing models differ as much as prices: Motics has a free plan and paid plans from £19 a month, with unlimited users and credits shared across its agents on Team and Scale; Heidi has a free tier with per-seat plans at £45–£65/user/month (billed yearly); Preve has a free tier with an integrated plan at $19/week; Twofold is $49 USD/month (annual). - If you run Cliniko, four of the six integrate for UK clinics today — Motics, Preve, PatientNotes, and CliniScribe; Heidi's Cliniko integration needs its Practice or Enterprise plan. Data residency also differs sharply: Motics and Heidi store UK data in the UK, while PatientNotes (Sydney), CliniScribe (Australia), and Twofold (US) process data overseas. - Always check the consent model: ambient recording requires patient consent under UK GDPR, and for patients who lack capacity you'll need a dictation workflow instead. ### AI scribes for UK physiotherapy compared | Tool | Built for physio? | Public pricing | PMS integrations | UK data & compliance | Free option | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics Scribe | Yes — physio/MSK templates, part of a UK clinic suite | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users; credits shared across agents | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data | Yes — start free, no card | | Heidi | Multi-specialty (incl. allied health) | Free; £45–£65/user/month billed yearly | Cliniko (Practice and Enterprise plans only) | UK-hosted data, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, NHS DSPT | Free tier | | Preve | Yes — physio-specific (notes, HEPs, letters) | Free basic; $19/week billed annually for integrations | Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, Jane | GDPR Ready & ISO 27001 claims; residency not detailed | Free tier | | PatientNotes | Allied health & medical | Pricing on their site (page blocks automated access) | Cliniko | Data stored in Sydney, Australia; transcripts deleted after 30 days | Trial | | CliniScribe | Allied health (Australia-first) | AUD pricing on their site | Cliniko, Nookal | Australian privacy laws; no UK GDPR claims published | 10-day trial | | Twofold | Therapy & rehab focus | $49 USD/month billed annually | Copy/export to any EHR (no UK PMS sync) | HIPAA with BAA; US infrastructure; no UK GDPR positioning | 7-day trial | ### Why physiotherapists are adopting AI scribes Physiotherapy has a notes problem. A study of NHS staff reported at HETT (2023) found clinicians spend about a third of their working hours — roughly 13.5 hours a week — on clinical documentation, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has campaigned against notes being written in unpaid time — its 2019 campaign cited NHS Staff Survey data showing 69% of physiotherapy staff work unpaid overtime. In private practice the pattern is the same — a 30-minute follow-up with 5–10 minutes of typing afterwards, multiplied by 12–16 patients a day, becomes evenings of catch-up documentation at home. An AI scribe attacks this directly: it captures the consultation (ambient recording with consent, or dictation), drafts a structured note in your format — SOAP or your clinic's template — and files it to your practice management system after you review it. Clinicians remain responsible for every note; the AI removes the typing, not the clinical judgement. For most physios the realistic saving is 5–10 minutes per session, which over a full diary is one to two hours a day. Adoption is already mainstream: the HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 (700+ UK clinic owners) records Heidi (52 mentions) and Motics (37 mentions) as the two most-mentioned AI tools in the survey. The same survey found 75% of clinics don't know which tools to choose — which is exactly what this guide is for. ### What actually matters when choosing - Physiotherapy fit: generic medical scribes write long-hand GP-style notes. Look for physio-aware output — SOAP structure, objective measures (ROM, strength), exercise prescription, and letters to referrers. - PMS integration: a scribe that doesn't push notes into Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, or your PMS means copy-paste for every patient. That's still faster than typing, but integration is where the time saving compounds. - Data protection: you are the data controller. Check where audio and transcripts are stored (UK/EU vs US/Australia), whether the vendor signs a data processing agreement, retention periods, and — critically — whether patient data is used to train AI models. - Pricing model: per-seat subscriptions suit full-time caseloads; clinics with part-time or self-employed associates often find per-seat costs add up and prefer usage-based or credit models. - Consent workflow: ambient recording needs informed patient consent. If you treat patients who can't consent to recording (for example, some neuro or community caseloads), make sure the tool has a dictation mode. ### The six AI scribes compared in detail We've ordered the six by fit for UK physiotherapy clinics — physio-shaped output, UK-available integrations, data protection, and pricing transparency, as set out in 'How we chose' below — not by survey mentions alone. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free, £0: 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required, so you can test notes on your own caseload. - Starter, £19 a month: 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team, from £98 a month (704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, with unlimited users, so part-time associates draw on the same pool. Adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale, from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits): adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise, custom pricing: for multi-site groups that need SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics combines physio-first templates, UK data residency and integration with Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. On Team and Scale, one credit pool with unlimited users covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, so you don't pay for a seat per associate, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate rather than cut off mid-clinic. Start on the free plan, or compare your own note volume with the calculator on [our pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK physiotherapy and allied-health clinics that want physio-shaped notes plus a wider automation suite (reception, audit, billing) on one platform Pricing: Free plan with 25 credits a month, no card required. Starter £19 a month for a solo clinician; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users and one clinic credit pool shared across Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing. 1 credit ≈ one Scribe note; prices ex VAT. Motics Scribe Agent is built for UK clinics: it captures the consultation ambiently or by dictation, drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters, and patient summaries in your clinic's templates, and files them to Cliniko, Nookal, or Meddbase for your review. Because physiotherapy is Motics' largest user base, the templates handle the things physios actually document — objective measures, exercise prescription, and letters back to referrers — rather than GP-style prose. Where Motics differs from single-purpose scribes is the suite around it: the same platform runs an AI receptionist (Phone Agent), clinic-wide documentation audit (Audit Agent), patient emails, and insurance billing, so notes, calls, and admin share one vendor, one data processing agreement, and one login. Pricing follows the same logic — instead of per-seat licences, you buy credits and spend them on whatever the clinic needs that month (notes, calls, emails), so part-time and self-employed associates don't need their own seats and spend grows with usage as the clinic grows. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this guide is written by our team. We've applied the same criteria to every tool, listed our own limitations below, and linked sources throughout so you can verify the claims. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP notes, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Two-way integration with Cliniko, Nookal, and Meddbase - UK data residency, ISO 27001-aligned security, UK GDPR, no AI training on patient data - Credit-based usage pricing — credits are fungible across agents, so part-time associates don't need their own seats - One platform for scribe, reception, audit, email, and billing Limitations: - Built UK-first — clinics outside the UK aren't the current focus - No TM3 or Jane integration yet; those users need copy-paste workflows - Usage-based pricing means estimating monthly note volume when comparing against flat per-seat plans ### 2. Heidi Best for: Multi-specialty clinicians and clinics, with a free tier and per-seat paid plans Pricing: Free tier (unlimited documentation with standard templates). Paid plans billed yearly: Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55, Practice £65 per user/month (excl. tax); monthly billing is £60 and £70 for Scribe Plus and Clinician. 14-day free trials. Heidi is the most-mentioned AI tool in UK private practice — 52 mentions in the HMDG Barometer. Its free tier covers documentation with standard templates; paid plans add advanced templates, 'Ask Heidi' note editing, patient and session linking, and clinical evidence features. In February 2026 Heidi restructured its plans: the old Pro became Scribe Plus (now sold only in the UK and EU), and the Clinician plan (£55/user/month billed yearly) bundles scribe and evidence features. Heidi publishes UK compliance documentation covering ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, DCB0129 clinical risk analysis, NHS DSPT, ICO registration, and UK-hosted data. Three things to check for a physio clinic: the Cliniko integration is on Heidi's Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans, not the Clinician plan; as a multi-specialty product built first for doctors, its default output can read more like a medical note than a physio note until you invest in template setup; and per-seat subscriptions need weighing carefully if your clinic runs on part-time or self-employed associates. Strengths: - 52 mentions in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 - Free tier with standard-template documentation - UK compliance documentation: ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, NHS DSPT, UK-hosted data - Clinical evidence features (cited answers) alongside the scribe Limitations: - Cliniko integration needs the Practice or Enterprise plan, not the Clinician plan - Multi-specialty by design — physio-specific output needs template work - Per-seat subscription costs add up for clinics with part-time associates - Some features differ by region (their support docs note certain Ask Heidi evidence features aren't available in the UK/EU) ### 3. Preve Best for: Physiotherapy clinics (Preve describes itself as a physio-specific scribe; free Basic plan) Pricing: Basic plan free (unlimited sessions, no PMS integrations). Integrated plan $19/week billed annually. 30-day free trial. Preve pitches itself as 'AI for back-to-back physios' and is designed around physiotherapy: alongside clinical notes it drafts treatment plans, home exercise programmes, and GP/referrer letters, with a live in-consult assistant. The free Basic plan offers unlimited sessions without integrations; the Integrated plan ($19/week billed annually) connects Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, and Jane. Preve states GDPR-ready and ISO 27001-compliant status on its site and targets physios in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the US. Two caveats: pricing is listed in dollars without specifying currency, and data residency isn't detailed — both worth confirming before rollout, since the weekly billing also works out at roughly $988/year for the integrated plan. Strengths: - Physio-specific outputs: notes, home exercise programmes, referral letters - PMS integrations: Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, Jane - Free tier with unlimited sessions - Live in-consult assistant Limitations: - Pricing currency is ambiguous ('$' with no country stated) and weekly billing works out at roughly $988/year for the integrated plan - Data residency not detailed publicly — confirm where UK patient data is processed - Smaller company with a shorter track record than the most-established tools in this guide ### 4. PatientNotes Best for: Cliniko clinics, for notes, patient summaries and letters Pricing: Pricing on their site (the page blocks automated access). PatientNotes (patientnotes.app) is a Cliniko-ecosystem scribe that turns consultation audio into clinical notes, plain-English patient summaries, and medical letters, with a documented one-click send-to-Cliniko integration. A per-session patient consent prompt is built in (and configurable), and its data handling is documented: transcripts are stored in a Google healthcare-grade data centre in Sydney and deleted after 30 days. For UK clinics the main consideration is exactly that documentation: data is processed in Australia rather than the UK/EU, which your data protection impact assessment needs to account for. Note there is a separate, unrelated US product at patientnotes.ai — make sure you're evaluating the .app product that integrates with Cliniko. Strengths: - Documented Cliniko integration with one-click note filing - Patient summaries and letters alongside clinical notes - Documented data handling: 30-day transcript deletion, per-session consent prompts built in Limitations: - Data stored in Sydney, Australia — UK clinics must cover the overseas transfer in their GDPR paperwork - Pricing page isn't publicly crawlable; figures only via third-party listings - Easily confused with the unrelated US product patientnotes.ai ### 5. CliniScribe Best for: Allied-health clinics on Cliniko or Nookal, built for the Australian market Pricing: AUD pricing (excl. 10% GST) with monthly/yearly options on their site. 10-day free trial, no lock-in. CliniScribe is an Australian AI clinical assistant that converts speech or typed shorthand into structured SOAP notes and sends them to Cliniko or Nookal in one click. It's aimed at Australian private-practice physios and allied-health clinicians, prices in AUD (exclusive of GST), and offers a 10-day trial with no lock-in contracts. Its compliance documentation is written for the Australian market — it states compliance with Australian privacy and healthcare laws and uses OpenAI's commercial API (no training on your data; OpenAI retains audio for up to 30 days before deletion). It makes no UK GDPR or ISO 27001 claims, so UK clinics adopting it would need to do their own data protection assessment of the US/AU processing chain. Strengths: - Cliniko and Nookal integration - SOAP-structured output designed for allied health - No lock-in contracts; 10-day trial Limitations: - Built for Australia — no UK GDPR or ISO 27001 claims published - Processing chain includes OpenAI's API with 30-day audio retention - AUD pricing only, with exact figures behind a JavaScript pricing page ### 6. Twofold Health Best for: US-based therapy and rehab clinicians Pricing: $49 USD/month billed annually ($588/year) or $69 monthly; discounted first month offers. 7-day trial. Twofold is a therapy-and-rehab-focused scribe with unlimited notes and rehab-discipline templates at $49 USD/month billed annually. UK clinicians encounter it because it features heavily in US review roundups and clinician communities. Twofold states that its infrastructure is US-based and its compliance framework is HIPAA (with BAAs) rather than UK GDPR. It doesn't publish a UK data residency option or UK PMS integration, so notes are exported or copied into your system. Strengths: - $49 USD/month (annual) with unlimited notes - Rehab and therapy templates - Covered in US clinician review roundups Limitations: - US infrastructure with HIPAA compliance — no UK GDPR positioning or UK data residency published - No UK practice management integrations (export/copy-paste workflow) - USD billing ### How we chose We compared the AI scribes with verifiable adoption among UK physiotherapy and allied-health clinics as of June 2026. Selection drew on the independent HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 (700+ UK clinic owners), Cliniko's connected-apps directory, and vendor documentation. The HMDG survey also records 'Fathom' (11 mentions) as an AI scribe — the survey doesn't identify the vendor, and the well-known product of that name is a general-purpose meeting notetaker without clinical templates or PMS integrations, so we've excluded it from the detailed comparison; if clinicians are using general meeting notetakers for patient consultations, that's worth a governance review in itself. Heidi prices and Cliniko plan availability were checked again on 10 October 2026. Every competitor price was read from the vendor's public pricing page on 10 June 2026 — including Heidi's UK pricing page with the currency set to GBP — except PatientNotes, whose pricing page blocks automated access — we say so rather than quoting unverifiable figures. Motics' pricing is described per its credit-based model, with live rates on the Motics pricing page. Compliance statements are taken from vendors' own published documentation and labelled as claims where we couldn't verify them independently. Motics is our own product. We've disclosed that, applied identical criteria to it — including listing its limitations — and linked every source. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is an AI scribe for physiotherapy? An AI scribe is software that listens to your patient consultation (with consent) or takes your dictation, then drafts the clinical note — typically in SOAP format with subjective findings, objective measures, assessment, and plan — for you to review, edit, and file in your practice management system. Good physio-specific scribes also draft treatment plans, home exercise programmes, and letters to referrers. The clinician always reviews and approves the note; the AI removes the typing, not the responsibility. ### Are AI scribes worth it for physiotherapists? For most clinicians, yes — the maths is straightforward. Clinicians spend roughly a third of working hours (about 13.5 hours a week) on documentation, and 69% of NHS physiotherapy staff report unpaid overtime, much of it notes. If an AI scribe saves 5–10 minutes per session across a 12–16 patient day, that's one to two hours daily — for roughly the price of a single patient appointment per month. Motics' free plan needs no card, so you can test the saving on your own caseload first. Clinic owners also report a retention benefit: clinicians with young families in particular cite evening notes as a reason to reduce hours or leave. ### How much does an AI scribe cost in the UK? Motics has a free plan (25 credits a month, no card), Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month ex VAT (704 shared credits) with unlimited users and one credit pool across its scribe, phone, email and billing agents. Published competitor pricing (Heidi checked 10 Oct 2026; others June 2026): Heidi offers a free tier, with paid plans at £45 (Scribe Plus), £55 (Clinician) and £65 (Practice) per user/month billed yearly. Preve has a free basic plan and a $19/week integrated plan. Twofold is $49 USD/month billed annually. PatientNotes and CliniScribe list pricing on their own sites (US$/AUD respectively). To see what Motics would cost for your note volume, use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Do I need patient consent to use an AI scribe? Yes. Recording a consultation processes special-category health data, so under UK GDPR you need informed patient consent before ambient recording, and your privacy notice should explain what's recorded, where it's processed, and for how long it's retained. Good practice is verbal consent at the start of each session, documented in the note — some tools (like PatientNotes) build per-session consent into the product. For patients who can't consent to recording, such as some neurological or community caseloads, use the scribe's dictation mode instead and dictate your findings after the session. ### Is patient data used to train the AI? Where is it stored? It varies — and it's the most important due-diligence question. Motics stores data in the UK and doesn't train AI models on patient data; Heidi hosts UK data in the UK with ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, and NHS DSPT certifications. PatientNotes stores transcripts in Sydney and deletes them after 30 days. CliniScribe processes via OpenAI's commercial API (no training, 30-day retention). Twofold runs on US infrastructure under HIPAA. As data controller you need a data processing agreement and a record of where every byte of patient data goes. ### Will an AI scribe write proper SOAP notes with physio abbreviations? The physio-specific tools (Motics, Preve, CliniScribe) default to SOAP structure and handle objective measures like range of movement and strength grading; Motics and Preve also draft exercise prescriptions and referrer letters. Multi-specialty scribes like Heidi can produce physio notes but typically need template configuration first — out-of-the-box output can read like a GP letter: accurate, but long-hand and missing the abbreviations your team expects. Whichever tool you pick, budget an hour to tune templates before judging note quality. ### Per-seat or credits — which pricing model suits a clinic with part-time associates? Per-seat subscriptions (Heidi, Twofold) are simple and suit full-time caseloads, but a clinic with six associates each working one or two days a week pays for six full seats while using a fraction of the capacity. Usage-based models — like Motics' credit pricing, where one credit pool is shared across the team and across agents — price by the work actually generated, which clinics with part-time and self-employed clinicians usually find fairer. Run the numbers both ways on your actual rota, using the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/), before committing to an annual plan. ### Can I just use ChatGPT to write my physio notes? Not with patient data. Consumer ChatGPT isn't designed for special-category health data: you have no healthcare data processing agreement, limited control over retention and training, and no UK GDPR assurances for special-category health data — pasting consultation details into it is a data protection incident waiting to happen. Healthcare scribes exist precisely to provide the same convenience with a lawful basis: DPAs, healthcare-grade hosting, no-training guarantees, and audit trails. If budget is the constraint, a healthcare scribe's free plan is the safe way to pay nothing: Motics Free gives 25 credits a month, around one Scribe note a day, with no card required. ### Sources - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — AI software & tools in UK physiotherapy clinics](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [HETT — Research: clinicians spend a third of working hours on clinical documentation](https://blog.hettshow.co.uk/research-reveals-clinicians-spend-a-third-of-working-hours-on-clinical-documentation) - [Chartered Society of Physiotherapy — Do your patient notes in your proper hours](https://www.csp.org.uk/news/2019-02-28-do-your-patient-notes-your-proper-hours-friday-1-march) - [Heidi — UK pricing page (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — UK compliance (ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, NHS DSPT, UK hosting)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Heidi — Plan changes: names, features, FAQs (February 2026 restructure)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/13921980-heidi-plan-changes-names-features-faqs) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Preve — pricing and integrations](https://preve.co/pricing) - [PatientNotes — Cliniko integration documentation](https://www.patientnotes.app/documentation/cliniko-integration-feature) - [Cliniko connected apps — PatientNotes](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/patientnotes/) - [CliniScribe — pricing](https://cliniscribe.ai/pricing) - [Cliniko connected apps — CliniScribe AI](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/cliniscribe-ai/) - [Twofold Health — pricing](https://www.trytwofold.com/pricing) - [Motics — Scribe Agent pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## AI Tools for UK Private Practices in 2026: What Clinics Actually Use URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-tools-uk-private-practices/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. UK private practices use AI in five categories in 2026: AI scribes for clinical notes, AI receptionists for calls and booking, AI triage for pre-appointment assessment, billing automation for insurer claims, and documentation audit for CQC readiness. Motics covers four of the five on one credit pool and was the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer of 700+ UK clinic owners, where 60% of clinics were open to AI but 75% didn't know which tools to use. Key takeaways: - In the independent HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 (700+ UK clinic owners), the tools clinic owners named most often were AI scribes and AI receptionists, followed by AI triage and general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT. Motics was the most-mentioned AI receptionist (37 mentions). - Cost is not the barrier: only 8% of clinic owners cite cost as what's stopping AI adoption. The real blockers are reliability uncertainty (18%) and not knowing where to start (18%). - Larger clinics adopt across multiple categories at once — at £1M+ turnover clinics, 57% report team-wide AI adoption spanning several tools. - Start where your pain is loudest: evening note-writing points to the Motics Scribe Agent; missed calls point to the Motics Phone Agent; insurer payment delays point to the Motics Billing Agent. - One platform is simpler than five tools: Motics runs Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing from one shared credit pool, with UK data residency, Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration, unlimited users on clinic plans, and a free plan to start. - Whatever you adopt, run the same five governance checks: patient consent, UK data residency, a signed data processing agreement, no AI training on patient data, and mandatory clinician review. ### The five categories of clinic AI at a glance | Category | What it automates | Motics agent | Motics pricing (ex VAT) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AI scribe | Clinical notes, letters, treatment plans from consultations | Motics Scribe Agent | Free plan (25 credits a month); Starter £19 a month; clinic plans from £98 a month. 1 credit ≈ one note | | AI receptionist | Answering calls, booking/rescheduling into your PMS, after-hours cover | Motics Phone Agent | Team plan, from £98 a month (704 shared credits); calls use 3 credits a minute | | AI triage & assessment | Pre-appointment symptom and history gathering | Not offered by Motics | Specialist triage tools generally price on request | | Billing & claims automation | Insurer claims, remittances, reconciliation, patient excess collection | Motics Billing Agent | Team plan and above, from the shared credit pool | | Documentation audit & QA | Note-quality review, compliance checks, CQC readiness | Motics Audit Agent | Scale plan, from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits) | ### The state of AI in UK private practice Two years ago, AI in a private clinic meant a clinician quietly using ChatGPT to tidy up a letter. In 2026 it's a mainstream operational decision: the HMDG Private Practice Barometer — which surveyed more than 700 UK clinic owners — found 60% of clinics are open to AI, and at clinics with £1M+ turnover, 57% report team-wide adoption across multiple tools. The striking finding is what's holding the rest back: only 8% cite cost. The real barriers are uncertainty about reliability (18%) and simply not knowing where to start (18%). As the report puts it, the market is paralysed by choice, not price. That paralysis is what this guide is for. The clinic AI market sorts into five categories, each solving a different operational pain. Most clinics start with one — wherever it hurts most — and expand once the first tool proves itself. One disclosure before the map: Motics, our product, covers four of the five categories below, so we use it as the worked example in each; 'How we chose' at the end explains our sources. What UK clinics actually use (HMDG Barometer 2026): the tools clinic owners named most often were AI scribes and AI receptionists, followed by AI triage and general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT. Motics was the most-mentioned AI receptionist, with 37 mentions. Survey of 700+ UK clinic owners, August–November 2025. Our recommendation for most UK private clinics is to run the categories on one platform rather than five separate tools. Motics runs the Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing agents from one shared credit pool on the Team plan, adds the Audit agent on Scale, keeps data in the UK, files into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and charges no per-seat fees. You can start on the free plan and size a clinic plan with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### The five categories explained ### 1. AI scribes — clinical notes without the typing Best for: Clinicians losing evenings to documentation; clinics where note backlogs threaten compliance or retention Pricing: Motics Scribe Agent: Free plan (25 credits a month), Starter £19 a month, clinic plans from £98 a month ex VAT; 1 credit ≈ one note. Elsewhere, pricing runs from free tiers to per-seat subscriptions. AI scribes capture the consultation — ambient recording with patient consent, or dictation — and draft the clinical note, letters, and treatment plans for clinician review. This is the most mature category and the biggest single time-saver: clinicians spend about a third of working hours — roughly 13.5 hours a week — on documentation (2023 NHS staff study), and a scribe typically returns one to two hours a day on a full diary. Motics Scribe Agent is built for UK private and allied-health clinics: physio-first templates, notes filed into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, UK data residency, no training on patient data, and credit-based pricing shared with the other Motics agents. Other scribes on the UK market differ mainly in pricing model (per seat or usage), data residency and which practice management systems they file into; our [AI scribe guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/best-ai-scribes-physiotherapy-uk/) compares them in detail. Strengths: - Biggest, most proven time saving of any category — typically 5–10 minutes per patient - Motics' free plan makes trying it risk-free - Helps retention: evening note-writing is a documented reason clinicians reduce hours or leave Limitations: - Requires a patient-consent workflow for ambient recording - Output needs clinician review every time — it's a draft, not a finished record - Data residency varies wildly between vendors (UK vs US vs Australia) — check before trialling ### 2. AI receptionists — every call answered, booked, and logged Best for: Clinics missing calls at peak times, paying for call-answering services, or losing after-hours enquiries to competitors Pricing: Motics Phone Agent: included from the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits); calls use 3 credits a minute from the shared pool. Other receptionists price per call, per minute or per practitioner. AI receptionists answer your phone 24/7, hold a natural conversation, and book, reschedule, or cancel appointments directly in your practice management system — escalating anything complex to your team with a structured message. For private clinics the business case is missed-call recovery: reception teams at capacity miss a meaningful share of inbound calls, and a single self-pay enquiry can lead to treatment worth £11,000 or more for surgical work. Motics Phone Agent is the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG survey (37 mentions). It answers 24/7 on your existing number, books directly into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, summarises every call and transfers complex calls to your team, with usage drawn from the same credit pool as notes, email and billing. NHS GP surgeries are a different market with their own telephony tools. Our [AI receptionist guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/best-ai-receptionists-uk-clinics/) covers the options for private clinics. Strengths: - Direct revenue impact — recovered calls are recovered bookings - 24/7 coverage, with no queue even when ten calls land at once - Usage-based pricing means costs scale with call volume Limitations: - Needs your services, prices, and policies configured well to be convincing - Unusual requests still escalate to humans (by design) - Be transparent with patients that it's an AI, with a route to a human ### 3. AI triage & assessment — know why the patient is coming before they arrive Best for: MSK and physio clinics that want richer first appointments and better-prepared clinicians Pricing: GoClinic: pricing on request. AI triage tools gather the patient's symptoms, history, and goals before the first appointment — typically via a guided online assessment — so the clinician walks in informed and the appointment starts at the assessment, not the questionnaire. GoClinic (formerly GoTriage), designed by physiotherapists for MSK assessment, is the triage tool UK clinic owners named in the HMDG survey (21 mentions). Motics doesn't offer a triage product. Triage sits between the receptionist and the scribe: the Motics Phone Agent captures the enquiry, and the Motics Scribe Agent drafts the note once the patient is seen. It's also the category where clinical governance matters most visibly to patients — assessments must signpost red flags to human clinicians, never diagnose. Strengths: - Better-prepared first appointments and cleaner caseload routing - Compounds with scribe and receptionist tools Limitations: - Pricing not public — budget via demo - Patient completion rates depend on how you introduce the assessment - Red-flag escalation pathways need explicit setup and testing ### 4. Billing & claims automation — chase insurers without the spreadsheet Best for: Clinics with significant insurer caseloads losing hours to claims, remittances, and reconciliation Pricing: Motics Billing Agent: included from the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT), drawing on the shared credit pool. Most specialist billing tools price on request. Insurance billing is the quiet time-sink of private practice: submitting claims to each insurer's portal, processing remittances, recording payments in the PMS, chasing shortfalls, and collecting patient excesses. Billing automation pulls invoices from your practice management system, submits claims to UK insurers, reconciles what comes back, and flags the exceptions for a human. Motics Billing Agent covers claims, pre-authorisation, and revenue-cycle workflows as part of the Motics suite, drawing on the same credit pool as the other Motics agents. Whichever billing tool you evaluate, pilot it with your own insurer mix. Strengths: - Directly attacks payment delays and admin hours - Exception-based workflow: humans only touch what needs judgement - Runs on the same credit pool as Motics notes, phones and email Limitations: - Most specialist billing tools don't publish pricing - Vendor ROI figures are vendor case studies — pilot with your own insurer mix - Setup involves mapping your insurer contracts and billing rules properly ### 5. Documentation audit & QA — check every note, not a 1% sample Best for: Multi-clinician clinics and groups preparing for CQC inspection or running clinical governance at scale Pricing: Motics Audit Agent: included on the Scale plan (from £290 a month ex VAT: 2,640 shared credits) and Enterprise. Most clinics audit documentation the manual way: a senior clinician samples a handful of notes per clinician per quarter — often a full day's work that still covers only around 1% of records, with coverage getting worse as the clinic grows. AI audit flips the model: every note is checked against your quality and compliance criteria, with exceptions surfaced for human review, so governance scales with the caseload rather than with senior-clinician time. Motics Audit Agent audits 100% of clinical notes for quality, completeness, and CQC readiness across the clinic, and is built for private allied-health clinics. NHS settings tend to use separate peer-review platforms. If your driver is a CQC inspection, audit is the category that turns 'we think our notes are fine' into evidence. Strengths: - 100% coverage replaces 1% sampling — governance that scales - Inspection-ready evidence rather than anecdote (CQC for private clinics) - Frees senior-clinician days currently spent on manual audit Limitations: - Newest category — fewer vendors and less public benchmarking than scribes - Sits on higher-tier plans (Motics: Scale and Enterprise) - Audit criteria need clinical input up front to reflect your standards ### 6. General-purpose AI (ChatGPT and friends) — useful, but not for patient data Best for: Marketing copy, policies, templates, and admin that involves no patient-identifiable information Pricing: ChatGPT: free tier; paid plans available. ChatGPT is the fourth most-mentioned AI tool in UK private practice (19 mentions in the HMDG survey) — and the category most likely to get a clinic into data-protection trouble. For patient-free work it's genuinely useful: website copy, job adverts, policy drafts, exercise-sheet wording, email templates. The hard line: don't put patient-identifiable information into consumer AI tools. Consumer ChatGPT offers no healthcare data processing agreement, no UK GDPR assurances for special-category health data, and limited control over retention and training. The survey also names general-purpose meeting notetakers; if staff use one for patient-facing conversations, move the workflow to a scribe built for healthcare, with a DPA, UK processing, and a no-training guarantee, such as the [Motics Scribe Agent](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/). Strengths: - Free-to-cheap and immediately useful for non-clinical admin - Great for marketing, policies, and internal documents - Zero procurement effort Limitations: - Not lawful-by-design for patient-identifiable data — no healthcare-grade DPA on consumer plans - Easy for well-meaning staff to cross the line; set a written policy - No audit trail or clinical templates ### How we chose This guide maps the categories of AI in use across UK private practice, anchored on the independent HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — a survey of 700+ UK clinic owners conducted August–November 2025 — for adoption data, supplemented by vendor documentation and our two detailed buyer's guides (AI receptionists and AI scribes). Motics is our product, and it covers four of the five categories (scribe, receptionist, billing, and documentation audit), so we use it as the worked example in those categories. For AI triage, which Motics doesn't offer, we name the tool UK clinic owners mentioned in the survey. Motics prices come from our pricing page and are ex VAT; vendor-supplied results are labelled as vendor claims, and anything a vendor doesn't publish is marked 'on request'. Sources are linked below so you can verify each claim. ### Frequently asked questions ### What AI tools do UK private clinics actually use in 2026? Per the HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 (700+ UK clinic owners), the tools clinic owners named most often fall into five categories: AI scribes, AI receptionists, AI triage, billing automation, and documentation audit, plus general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT (19 mentions). Motics was the most-mentioned AI receptionist (37 mentions), and it covers four of the five categories, with Scribe, Phone, Billing and Audit agents on one credit pool. ### Where should a clinic start with AI? Start where the pain is loudest, because that's where ROI is provable fastest. If clinicians do notes in the evening, start with an AI scribe: the Motics free plan lets you try the Scribe Agent at no cost. If the phone rings out at peak times or after hours, start with the Motics Phone Agent on after-hours calls. If insurer payments drag, add the Motics Billing Agent. Prove one tool in 30 days, then expand — that's the pattern the HMDG data shows at larger clinics, where 57% of £1M+ practices run team-wide AI across multiple tools. On Motics, expanding means switching on another agent from the same credit pool. ### How much does clinic AI cost overall? Less than most owners expect — only 8% of UK clinic owners cite cost as their AI adoption barrier. Motics prices on one shared credit pool rather than per seat (ex VAT): Free £0 for Scribe and Chat (25 credits a month), Starter £19 a month, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits; adds Phone, Email and Billing with unlimited users), and Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits, adding the Audit agent). Across the wider market, scribes are commonly priced per seat, receptionists per call, minute or practitioner, and triage and billing tools usually on request. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to size a plan for your clinic. ### Can clinic staff use ChatGPT for patient work? Only for work containing no patient-identifiable information — marketing copy, policies, templates, job adverts. Consultation notes, letters, referrals, or anything naming a patient must not go into consumer AI tools: there's no healthcare data processing agreement, no UK GDPR assurance for special-category health data, and limited control over retention and training. Set a written one-line policy ('no patient-identifiable data in consumer AI tools') and give clinicians a compliant scribe so the convenient path is also the lawful one. ### What governance checks should we run before adopting any clinic AI tool? Five checks cover most of the risk: (1) Consent — does the tool support informed patient consent, and is it documented? (2) Data residency — where is patient data stored and processed (UK/EU vs US/Australia)? (3) Contract — will the vendor sign a data processing agreement? (4) Training — is patient data used to train AI models? The answer should be no. (5) Human review — does the workflow require a clinician to review and approve output before it enters the record? Add your DPIA, update your privacy notice, and tell your indemnity provider what you're deploying. ### Does using AI tools help or hurt with CQC? Used properly, it helps. CQC cares about safe, effective, well-led services with sound record-keeping — AI scribes improve note completeness and timeliness, and AI audit tools give you evidence (100% note coverage) instead of anecdote at inspection. What hurts is ungoverned use: staff pasting patient data into consumer tools, no DPIA, no consent process. Document which tools you use, why, and the controls around them, and AI becomes part of your well-led story rather than a finding. ### Will AI replace clinic reception and admin staff? The pattern in UK clinics so far is augmentation, not replacement. AI receptionists absorb the call volume that was previously missed — after-hours, peak overflow, simultaneous calls — rather than the conversations your team already handles well, and clinics typically redeploy reception time to in-person patient experience and complex coordination. The same applies to scribes: the clinician still owns every note; they just stop typing it. The honest framing is that AI removes the work nobody was managing to do anyway. ### How do we evaluate whether an AI tool is reliable before rolling it out? Trial on real workload with defined success criteria. For a scribe: one clinician, one week, every note reviewed against what they'd have written — measure editing time and errors. For a receptionist: run it in a sandbox, ring it yourself with your ten most common call types, then put it live on after-hours calls only before giving it the daytime line. For billing or audit: pilot on one month of historical data and compare against your manual process. Reliability uncertainty is the top adoption barrier (18% per HMDG) — a structured two-week pilot converts uncertainty into data. ### Sources - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — AI software & tools in UK physiotherapy clinics (700+ clinic owners)](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [HETT — Research: clinicians spend a third of working hours on clinical documentation](https://blog.hettshow.co.uk/research-reveals-clinicians-spend-a-third-of-working-hours-on-clinical-documentation) - [GoClinic (formerly GoTriage) — AI-guided MSK assessment](https://goclinic.ai/) - [King's College London — One in seven people have used AI instead of seeing a GP](https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/one-in-seven-people-have-used-ai-instead-of-seeing-a-gp-study-finds) - [PrivateHealth.co.uk — Private hip replacement surgery costs](https://www.privatehealth.co.uk/hip-replacement-surgery/costs/) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## Motics vs Heidi (2026): AI Scribe Comparison for UK Clinics URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-heidi/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Heidi is a multi-specialty AI scribe sold per seat: a free tier, then £45 to £65 per user a month billed yearly. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite with a physio-first scribe, credit pricing from £19 a month and unlimited users on clinic plans. For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase in the UK today, and the same credit pool runs an AI receptionist, email, billing and documentation audit. This page is written by the Motics team, and every Heidi claim is sourced. Key takeaways: - Different shapes: Heidi is a scribe with clinical evidence features; Motics is a clinic AI suite, with Scribe, Phone, Audit, Email and Billing agents sharing one credit pool. - Pricing models differ more than prices: Heidi sells per-seat plans (free tier, then £45 to £65 per user a month billed yearly); Motics sells credit plans from £19 a month, and Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits) has unlimited users on one shared pool. - Integration availability matters for UK Cliniko clinics: Motics integrates with Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase in the UK; Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice and Enterprise plans only. - Both publish UK data protection credentials: Heidi lists ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, NHS DSPT and UK-hosted data; Motics stores patient data in the UK, processes it under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic, has security aligned to ISO 27001, and does not train AI models on patient data. - Motics' templates are physio-first (SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters), so private physio and MSK clinics get usable notes without template configuration. ### Motics vs Heidi at a glance | | Motics | Heidi | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Clinic AI suite: Scribe, Phone, Audit, Email, Billing agents | AI medical scribe with clinical evidence features | | HMDG Barometer mentions | 37 (most-mentioned AI receptionist) | 52 (most-mentioned AI tool overall) | | Pricing model | Credit-based usage plans — one shared pool, unlimited users | Per-seat subscriptions | | Published pricing | Free; Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits, unlimited users); Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits); ex VAT | Free tier; Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55 and Practice £65 per user/month billed yearly (£60 and £70 monthly; Enterprise custom; checked 10 Oct 2026) | | Physiotherapy fit | Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters | Multi-specialty by design; physio output may need template configuration | | PMS integration (UK) | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | Cliniko on the Practice (£65) and Enterprise plans only, not the Clinician plan (checked 10 Oct 2026) | | UK compliance highlights | ISO 27001-aligned security, UK GDPR, UK data residency, no training on patient data | ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, DCB0129, NHS DSPT, UK-hosted data | | Beyond the scribe | AI receptionist, 100%-coverage documentation audit, patient email, insurance billing | Clinical evidence with citations (Ask Heidi); Heidi Comms add-on for calls/texts | | Free option | Free plan (25 credits a month), no card | Free tier (standard templates) and 14-day paid-plan trials | ### A clinic suite versus a scribe Heidi is an AI medical scribe with clinical evidence features, and it is the most-mentioned AI tool in the HMDG Barometer. Motics includes a scribe but is built as a clinic AI suite: the same platform and credit pool run an AI receptionist that answers your phones, a documentation audit agent that reviews clinical notes, patient email automation and insurance billing. That difference drives almost every line in the comparison table. Notes are rarely a clinic's only admin problem: missed calls, audit sampling and unbilled work sit next to them. With Motics, one vendor, one data processing agreement and one credit pool replace three or four point subscriptions. ### The three questions that decide it - Who does the documentation? A physiotherapy, podiatry or MSK clinic usually wants SOAP structure, objective measures, exercise prescription and referrer letters out of the box. Motics' templates are built around these. Heidi is multi-specialty by design, so physio output may need template configuration first. - How does your team work? Clinics with part-time and self-employed associates often find per-seat pricing expensive relative to use. Motics' Team and Scale plans share one credit pool across unlimited users, so a one-day-a-week associate doesn't need a full licence. - Where must the notes end up? Motics files to Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase in the UK today. Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics stores patient data in the UK, files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase for UK clinics today, and writes physio-first notes without template work. One shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale, so spend follows usage rather than headcount. For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: start on the free plan, or estimate your monthly cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics that want physio-shaped notes plus phones, audit, email, and billing on one credit pool Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters, and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, filed to Cliniko, Nookal, or Meddbase after clinician review. Around it sit the Phone Agent (a 24/7 AI receptionist that books directly into your diary — the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG survey), the Audit Agent (reviews 100% of clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness), and email and billing automation. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Credits are fungible across agents, so a quiet month on the phones can fund a heavy month of notes. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every Heidi claim is sourced to Heidi's own published pages so you can verify it directly. Strengths: - Physio-first output: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - UK-available integrations: Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase - One credit pool covers scribe, phone, audit, email, and billing — unlimited users - UK data residency, ISO 27001-aligned security, UK GDPR, no training on patient data - Free plan with 25 credits a month, no card required Limitations: - No in-consult clinical evidence look-ups - Built UK-first; clinics outside the UK aren't the current focus - No TM3 or Jane integration yet (copy-paste workflows there) ### 2. Heidi Best for: Multi-specialty clinicians who want a per-seat scribe with clinical evidence features Pricing: Free tier; Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55, Practice £65 per user/month billed yearly (excl. tax; £60 and £70 monthly for Scribe Plus and Clinician). 14-day trials. Verified on Heidi's GBP pricing page, June 2026. Heidi is an AI medical scribe with 52 mentions in the HMDG Barometer. The free tier includes documentation with standard templates; paid plans add advanced templates, 'Ask Heidi' editing, patient and session linking, and clinical evidence with citations. Its February 2026 restructure renamed Pro to Scribe Plus (now sold only in the UK and EU) and introduced the Clinician plan bundling scribe and evidence features. Heidi publishes UK compliance documentation covering ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, DCB0129 clinical risk analysis, NHS DSPT, ICO registration and UK-hosted data. For a UK private clinic the practical checks are: the Cliniko integration needs the Practice or Enterprise plan (not the Clinician plan), default output is multi-specialty rather than physio-first, and per-seat costs need modelling against a part-time roster. Strengths: - Free tier with standard-template documentation - Clinical evidence features with citations - UK compliance documentation: ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC, NHS DSPT, UK-hosted data Limitations: - Per-seat subscriptions — costs scale with headcount, not usage - Cliniko integration needs the Practice or Enterprise plan, not the Clinician plan - Multi-specialty defaults — physio-specific output may need template work - Documentation audit, patient email automation, and insurance billing need other vendors; calls/texts are a separate Heidi Comms add-on ### How we chose Every Heidi fact on this page was read from Heidi's own published pages on 10 June 2026: the GBP pricing page, the UK compliance page, and its support documentation (plan restructure and Cliniko integration availability). Adoption figures come from the independent HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 (700+ UK clinic owners). Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Heidi prices and Cliniko plan availability were checked again on 10 October 2026. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you find anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Heidi is a trademark of its owner; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by Heidi Health. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is Motics a good alternative to Heidi? For UK private and allied-health clinics, yes. Motics is the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer, its scribe is built physio-first, and it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase in the UK today. The same credit pool also runs phones, email, billing and documentation audit, which a scribe alone doesn't cover. You can start on the free plan without a card. ### How do Motics and Heidi pricing compare? They use different models. Heidi sells per-seat subscriptions: a free tier, then £45 (Scribe Plus), £55 (Clinician) and £65 (Practice) per user a month billed yearly (checked 10 Oct 2026, excl. tax). Motics sells credit plans: Free, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool, all ex VAT. Clinics with part-time associates usually pay less on a shared pool than on a seat per person; estimate your own cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Do Motics and Heidi both integrate with Cliniko? Motics integrates with Cliniko (plus Nookal and Meddbase) for UK clinics today. Heidi offers a Cliniko integration on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans; its support docs say it isn't supported on the Clinician (individual) plan. If the integration matters to your workflow, test it during the trial on your own diary. ### Which is better for physiotherapists — Motics or Heidi? Motics. Its templates are physio-first: SOAP structure, objective measures like range of movement, exercise prescription and letters back to referrers come out of the box, and notes file into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase. Heidi is a multi-specialty product, so physio output may need template configuration first. ### Can I switch from Heidi to Motics? Yes, and the switch is lower-friction than most software migrations because the clinical record lives in your practice management system, not in the scribe. Start Motics on the free plan, connect your PMS, use the physio-first templates (or recreate your own), and compare the same consultations side by side for a week. Export anything stored only in the old scribe (linked sessions, documents) before cancelling. ### Where do Motics and Heidi store patient data — and is it used to train AI? Heidi states UK data is hosted in the UK and publishes ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, DTAC and NHS DSPT documentation. Motics stores patient data in the UK, processes it under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic, has security aligned to ISO 27001, and does not use patient data to train AI models. Get the data processing agreement in place and record where data flows in your DPIA. ### Can I use Heidi and Motics together? There's no technical conflict, but most clinics consolidate. Running two tools means two data processing agreements, two invoices and two places notes might live mid-review. Motics covers notes, phones, email, billing and documentation audit on one credit pool, so moving scribing onto Motics keeps everything on one platform. ### Sources - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — AI tools in UK physiotherapy clinics (700+ clinic owners)](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [Heidi — UK pricing page (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — UK compliance](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Heidi — Plan changes: names, features, FAQs (February 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/13921980-heidi-plan-changes-names-features-faqs) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Heidi — pricing plans, cost and features (free tier scope)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/8885030-heidi-s-pricing-plans-cost-and-features) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## Heidi Alternatives for UK Clinics (2026): 5 AI Scribes Compared URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/heidi-alternatives-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. The strongest Heidi alternative for UK private and allied-health clinics in 2026 is Motics (our product): a physio-first scribe inside a wider clinic AI suite, credit pricing from £19 a month with unlimited users on clinic plans, Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration live in the UK, and patient data stored in the UK. This guide also lists Preve, PatientNotes, CliniScribe and Twofold with their published pricing, integrations and data locations, so you can check each against your requirements. Key takeaways: - Four reasons clinics commonly give for shopping around: per-seat pricing on part-time rosters, physio-specific output needs, PMS integration by plan (Heidi's Cliniko integration needs its Practice or Enterprise plan), and wanting one platform for more than notes. - Motics is the most direct UK alternative: the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer, and the only option here whose plan also covers an AI receptionist, documentation audit, email and billing. - Motics has a free plan (25 credits a month, around one note a day, no card), and Starter is £19 a month for a solo clinician. - Check data residency before switching: Motics keeps UK patient data in the UK; PatientNotes processes in Sydney, CliniScribe in Australia via OpenAI's API, and Twofold on US infrastructure. - Switching is low-friction because the clinical record lives in your practice management system, not in the scribe. ### Heidi alternatives compared for UK clinics | Alternative | What it offers | Published pricing | PMS integrations (UK) | UK data & compliance | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Physio-first notes + phones, audit, email, billing on one credit pool | Free; Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits, unlimited users); ex VAT | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data | | Preve | Physio-specific scribe with a free tier | Free Basic; Integrated $19/week billed annually | Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, Jane | GDPR Ready & ISO 27001 claims; residency not detailed | | PatientNotes | Cliniko notes, summaries and letters | Pricing on their site (page blocks automated access) | Cliniko | Sydney data storage; 30-day transcript deletion | | CliniScribe | Cliniko/Nookal SOAP notes, Australian vendor | AUD pricing on their site | Cliniko, Nookal | Australian privacy laws; no UK GDPR claims published | | Twofold | USD-priced scribe with rehab templates | $49 USD/month billed annually | None (copy/export) | HIPAA with BAA; US infrastructure | ### Why clinics look beyond Heidi Heidi is the most-mentioned AI tool in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer of 700+ UK clinic owners, with a free tier, 14-day paid trials and published UK compliance documentation. Clinics that look elsewhere usually hit one of four specific friction points. - Per-seat pricing on a part-time roster. Heidi's paid plans are £45–£65 per user/month billed yearly (checked 10 Oct 2026). With part-time and self-employed associates, that can mean paying for full seats that sit idle most of the week, a common trigger we hear for shopping around. - Physio-shaped output. Heidi is multi-specialty by design. Physiotherapy, podiatry, and MSK clinics often want SOAP structure, objective measures, exercise prescription, and referrer letters out of the box rather than after template work. - PMS integration by plan. Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans, and its support docs say it isn't supported on the Clinician (individual) plan. A clinic on per-user plans that wants notes filed into Cliniko needs every clinician on the Practice plan. - Wanting more than a scribe. Notes are often one of several admin problems: missed calls, audit sampling, unbilled insurance work. A scribe can't touch those; a suite can. Switching is lower-friction than it looks: for most clinics, the clinical record lives in your practice management system, not in the scribe. Start Motics on the free plan, run it on the same consultations for a week and compare the drafts. Your PMS record doesn't move; export anything stored only in the old scribe before cancelling. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics is the only alternative here that combines physio-first notes, Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration live in the UK, and UK data residency. One shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale, so part-time associates don't each need a seat. For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: start on the free plan, or estimate your monthly cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### The five alternatives in detail Each card below lists the product's published pricing, features and limitations, as stated on its own website. ### 1. Motics Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics that want physio-first notes — and phones, audit, email, and billing on the same plan Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT. Motics is the most direct UK alternative and the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG Barometer. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries, physio-first by default, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review, with all three integrations live for UK clinics today. It answers the per-seat friction directly: Team and Scale plans are credit pools shared across unlimited users, so part-time associates don't need licences. It also answers the 'more than a scribe' friction: the same credits run a 24/7 AI receptionist, a documentation audit agent for CQC readiness, patient email and insurance billing. Data stays in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every claim about Heidi and the other alternatives is sourced to their own published pages, so you can check them directly. Strengths: - Physio-first templates out of the box: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Cliniko, Nookal, and Meddbase integration live for UK clinics - Credit-based pricing: unlimited users on one pool, no per-seat licences - Only alternative that also covers reception, audit, email, and billing - UK data residency, ISO 27001-aligned security, UK GDPR, no training on patient data Limitations: - No in-consult clinical evidence look-ups - Built UK-first; clinics outside the UK aren't the current focus - No TM3 or Jane integration yet ### 2. Preve Best for: Physiotherapy clinics (Preve describes itself as a physio-specific scribe; free Basic plan) Pricing: Free Basic plan (unlimited sessions, no integrations); Integrated plan $19/week billed annually. 30-day trial. Preve is built for physiotherapy: clinical notes, treatment plans, home exercise programmes and GP/referrer letters, with a live in-consult assistant. Its free Basic plan offers unlimited sessions without PMS integrations. The Integrated plan ($19/week billed annually, roughly $988/year) adds Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Jane integrations. The '$' pricing doesn't state a currency, and data residency isn't detailed publicly, so confirm both for your DPIA. Strengths: - Physio-specific: notes, home exercise programmes, referrer letters - Free tier with unlimited sessions - Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Jane integrations on the Integrated plan - States GDPR-ready and ISO 27001-compliant status Limitations: - Currency unstated ('$') and weekly billing works out at roughly $988/year for the integrated plan - Data residency not detailed publicly - Scribe only — no reception, audit, or billing capabilities ### 3. PatientNotes Best for: Cliniko clinics looking for notes, patient summaries and letters Pricing: Pricing on their site (the page blocks automated access). PatientNotes (patientnotes.app) turns consultation audio into clinical notes, plain-English patient summaries and medical letters, with a documented one-click send-to-Cliniko integration and a per-session consent prompt built in (and configurable). It documents its data handling: transcripts are stored in a Google healthcare-grade data centre in Sydney and deleted after 30 days, so UK clinics' GDPR paperwork needs to cover the Australian processing. The separate US product at patientnotes.ai is unrelated; the Cliniko-integrated product is the .app one. Strengths: - Documented Cliniko integration with one-click note filing - Patient summaries and letters alongside notes - Transparent data documentation: 30-day transcript deletion, consent prompts built in Limitations: - Data processed in Sydney — overseas-transfer paperwork needed for UK clinics - Pricing page blocks crawlers; figures only via third-party listings - Scribe only; easily confused with the unrelated patientnotes.ai ### 4. CliniScribe Best for: Allied-health clinicians on Cliniko or Nookal Pricing: AUD pricing (excl. 10% GST), monthly or yearly. 10-day free trial, no lock-in. CliniScribe converts speech or typed shorthand into structured SOAP notes and sends them to Cliniko or Nookal in one click. It is an Australian vendor with no lock-in contracts and a 10-day trial. It states compliance with Australian privacy and healthcare laws and processes via OpenAI's commercial API (no training on your data; up to 30-day audio retention at OpenAI). It doesn't publish UK GDPR or ISO 27001 claims, so a UK deployment needs its own data protection assessment. Strengths: - Clean Cliniko and Nookal integration - SOAP-structured allied-health output - No lock-in; 10-day trial Limitations: - No UK GDPR or ISO 27001 claims published — Australia-first compliance - Processing chain includes OpenAI's API with up to 30-day audio retention - AUD-only pricing, with figures behind a JavaScript pricing page ### 5. Twofold Health Best for: US-based clinicians paying in USD Pricing: $49 USD/month billed annually ($588/year) or $69 monthly. 7-day trial. Twofold sells unlimited notes at $49 USD a month billed annually, with rehab-discipline template coverage, and is widely reviewed in US clinician communities. Twofold states that its infrastructure is US-based and its compliance framework is HIPAA (with BAAs) rather than UK GDPR. It doesn't publish a UK data residency option or UK PMS integrations, so notes are exported or copied. Strengths: - $49 USD/month (annual) with unlimited notes - Rehab/therapy template coverage - Widely reviewed in US clinician communities Limitations: - US infrastructure with HIPAA compliance — no UK GDPR positioning or UK data residency published - No UK practice management integrations (export/copy-paste workflow) - USD billing ### How we chose This guide profiles the AI scribes a UK clinic evaluating Heidi alternatives will realistically shortlist. Every competitor price was read from the vendor's public pricing page on 10 June 2026 (PatientNotes excepted: its pricing page blocks automated access, so we don't quote figures for it). Heidi facts come from Heidi's own published pricing, compliance and support pages. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Heidi prices and Cliniko plan availability were checked again on 10 October 2026. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you find anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is the best Heidi alternative for UK clinics? For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics. Its scribe is physio-first, its Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integrations are live for UK clinics today, patient data stays in the UK, and credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans replaces per-seat licences. The same credit pool also runs phones, email, billing and documentation audit. You can start on the free plan without a card. ### Is there a free alternative to Heidi? Yes. Motics has a free plan with 25 credits a month (around one Scribe note a day) and no card required, and Starter is £19 a month for a solo clinician with around five notes a day. Among the other alternatives listed here, Preve offers a free Basic plan without PMS integrations; Twofold and CliniScribe offer trials. ### Which Heidi alternatives integrate with Cliniko in the UK? Motics (Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase) files notes into Cliniko for UK clinics today. Preve, PatientNotes and CliniScribe also publish Cliniko integrations; Twofold has no UK PMS integrations. Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans, per Heidi's own support docs. ### Why do clinics switch away from Heidi? Four patterns come up repeatedly: per-seat pricing that doesn't fit part-time and self-employed rosters; multi-specialty defaults that can need template work before physio notes read right; wanting PMS integration that's live in the UK today; and outgrowing a point scribe, wanting phones answered, documentation audited and billing chased on the same platform. Motics addresses all four. ### How hard is it to switch from Heidi to another AI scribe? Easier than most software migrations, because the scribe doesn't hold the record: notes live in your practice management system and stay there (export anything stored only in the scribe before you cancel). Start Motics on the free plan, connect your PMS, use the physio-first templates, and compare drafts on the same consultations for a week. Heidi's own pricing-page FAQ states subscriptions cancel at the end of the current billing cycle, so check your renewal date, especially on annual billing. ### What about alternatives for NHS GP practices rather than private clinics? NHS general practice is a different market: buyers weigh DTAC assessment, DCB0129 clinical risk documentation, NHS DSPT and integration with EMIS or SystmOne. This guide covers private and allied-health clinics on systems like Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, which is where Motics is built to fit. If you're an NHS practice, evaluate tools against NHS frameworks. ### How much does Motics cost compared with Heidi? Heidi sells per-seat plans: a free tier, then £45 to £65 per user a month billed yearly (checked 10 Oct 2026, excl. tax). Motics sells credit plans: Free, Starter at £19 a month, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool, and Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits), all ex VAT. Clinics with part-time associates usually pay less on a shared pool; estimate your own cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Sources - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026 — AI tools in UK physiotherapy clinics (700+ clinic owners)](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [Heidi — UK pricing page (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — UK compliance](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Preve — pricing and integrations](https://preve.co/pricing) - [PatientNotes — Cliniko integration documentation](https://www.patientnotes.app/documentation/cliniko-integration-feature) - [CliniScribe — pricing](https://cliniscribe.ai/pricing) - [Twofold Health — pricing](https://www.trytwofold.com/pricing) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## How Much Does an AI Scribe Cost in the UK? (2026 Pricing Guide) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-scribe-cost-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. On 10 October 2026, published UK AI scribe prices ranged from free tiers (Motics, Heidi, Tandem, Lyrebird) to £45 to £69 per user a month for per-seat plans. Accurx Scribe costs £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year for GP practices. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because it costs less in each of our worked examples: Starter is £19 a month for a solo clinician and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users. Key takeaways: - Three pricing models: per seat (Heidi, Tandem, Lyrebird), shared credits (Motics) and per registered patient (Accurx Scribe). Your roster matters more than the headline price; in our worked examples, Motics costs less in every scenario because one credit pool covers unlimited users. - Annual billing changes the comparison: Heidi's £45 and £55 plans are annual prices (£60 and £70 monthly per its page data), Tandem is £59 yearly or £69 monthly, and Motics is 15% off annually. - Lyrebird's UK pricing page (£50 a month) and help centre (£59 a month) disagree, so we show both. - Integrations can push you up a tier: Heidi's Cliniko integration needs its £65 Practice plan or Enterprise. - Check VAT: Motics quotes ex VAT; Heidi says prices exclude sales tax; Tandem, Lyrebird and Accurx don't say. ### UK AI scribe prices in GBP per month (checked 10 Oct 2026) | Scribe | Plan | Price (GBP per month) | Billing unit | VAT | Source checked | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Free | £0 (25 credits) | Per clinic | Ex VAT | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Motics | Starter | £19 (110 credits, about 5 notes a day) | Per clinic, one clinician | Ex VAT; 15% off annually | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Motics | Team | From £98 (704 shared credits) | Shared credit pool, unlimited users | Ex VAT; 15% off annually | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Motics | Scale | From £290 (2,640 shared credits) | Shared credit pool, unlimited users | Ex VAT; 15% off annually | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Heidi | Free | £0 | Per user | n/a | heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Heidi | Scribe Plus | £45 billed annually (£60 monthly) | Per user | Excludes sales tax | heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Heidi | Clinician | £55 billed annually (£70 monthly) | Per user | Excludes sales tax | heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Heidi | Practice | £65 billed annually (no monthly option) | Per user | Excludes sales tax | heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Tandem Health | Free | £0 | Per user | n/a | tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Tandem Health | Pro | £59 billed yearly (£69 monthly) | Per user | Not published | tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Lyrebird Health | Free / Lite | £0 (50 actions a month) | Per user | n/a | lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Lyrebird Health | Pro | £50 monthly or £37.50 a month billed £450 yearly (UK pricing page); £59 monthly or £40 a month billed £480 yearly (help centre) | Per user | Not published | Lyrebird pricing page and help centre, 10 Oct 2026 | | Accurx Scribe | List-size bands | About 3.3p to 4.2p per registered patient (£0.40 to £0.50 per patient per year) | Per registered patient, unlimited scribes | Not published | accurx.com/scribe-pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | TORTUS | Small-scale pilot (G-Cloud) | £44 per licence, up to 20 licences | Per licence | Ex VAT | G-Cloud 15 pricing document, 10 Oct 2026 | | TORTUS | NHS trust enterprise (G-Cloud) | About £16,667 (£200,000 a year for up to 100,000 audio hours) | Per organisation | Ex VAT | G-Cloud 15 pricing document, 10 Oct 2026 | | Anima | n/a | Not published | Not published | Not published | animahealth.com, 10 Oct 2026 | ### The three pricing models - Per seat (Heidi, Tandem, Lyrebird): each clinician needs a licence. Simple for full-time teams, expensive when several associates work one or two days a week. - Shared credits (Motics): the clinic buys a pool of credits (about 1 per note) that unlimited users share, and the same credits also pay for the AI receptionist, email and billing agents. - Per registered patient (Accurx Scribe): NHS practices pay by list size with unlimited scribes. Doesn't apply to clinics without a registered list. ### Worked examples These examples use list prices from the table and our own assumptions about workload. They're illustrations, not quotes, and exclude VAT and any discounts. | Scenario (our assumptions) | Motics | Heidi Scribe Plus | Tandem Pro | Lyrebird Pro | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Solo clinician, about 5 notes a day (110 a month), billed monthly | Starter £19 | £60 | £69 | £50 to £59 | | Solo clinician, same workload, billed annually (per month) | About £16 | £45 | £59 | £37.50 to £40 | | 4 full-time clinicians, about 12 notes a day each (about 1,056 a month), billed monthly | Team, £147 (1,056 credits) | £240 | £276 | £200 to £236 | | 2 full-time plus 4 one-day-a-week associates, about 12 notes a day each (about 740 a month), billed monthly | Team's entry pack (704 credits) plus 36 extra credits at 14p, about £103 | £360 (6 seats) | £414 (6 seats) | £300 to £354 before any part-time discount | Motics plans are sized by credits, not headcount, so the Team plan in the last two rows covers every user. Lyrebird offers part-time discounts of up to 50% at checkout, which would lower its figure in the last row. Free tiers from Motics (25 credits a month, around 1 Scribe note a day), Heidi, Tandem and Lyrebird may cover a very light solo workload, depending on each plan's limits. Don't optimise the wrong number. Clinicians reported spending an average of 13.5 hours a week on documentation, more than a third of their working hours, in a 2022 survey reported by HETT. Recovering even 30 minutes a day matters more than a £10 to £20 monthly difference between two plans, so pick the tool your team will actually use. ### Costs that don't show on the price list - Integration tiers. Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice (£65) and Enterprise plans. Check which plan includes your PMS before comparing prices. - VAT. A 20% difference if one vendor quotes ex VAT and you assume another's price includes it. Only Motics and Heidi state their position. - Other tools. A scribe doesn't answer phones or chase invoices. If you also pay for a call-answering service or AI receptionist, see our [AI receptionist pricing comparison](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-cost-uk/). ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. Suits clinics with part-time associates. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: in all four worked examples, Motics costs less than the per-seat plans, because one credit pool covers unlimited users and part-time associates don't need a seat each. On Team and Scale the same credits also pay for the Phone, Email and Billing agents; Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration is included, and there is a free plan to start. Extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate, so you are never cut off mid-clinic, and annual billing is 15% cheaper. Model your own clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### How we chose Every competitor price in this table was read from the vendor's own pricing page, help centre or official G-Cloud listing on 10 October 2026. We quote prices as published and convert only between time periods (annual to monthly, per year to per month), shown alongside the original figure. Where a vendor publishes no price, or doesn't say whether VAT is included, we say "not published". Heidi's monthly prices come from the price data on its pricing page; its monthly toggle didn't change the on-screen figures when we checked. TORTUS's G-Cloud document gives two conflicting validity dates (31 May 2026 and 31 March 2025), so treat those figures as indicative. Motics is our product and its prices come from our pricing page (ex VAT). The worked examples are our own assumptions and leave out discounts and add-ons. Prices change, so check each vendor's page before you buy, and tell us if anything here is wrong. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does an AI scribe cost in the UK in 2026? Published paid plans for individual clinicians run from £19 a month (Motics Starter) to £45 to £69 per user a month (Heidi, Tandem and Lyrebird, depending on plan and billing). Heidi, Tandem, Lyrebird and Motics all have free options. NHS GP practices can buy Accurx Scribe at £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year. Prices checked 10 October 2026. ### What's the cheapest AI scribe for a UK private clinic? It depends on how many people use it and how much. Per-seat plans (Heidi, Tandem, Lyrebird) charge for every clinician; Heidi, Tandem and Lyrebird also have free tiers with usage limits. Motics charges for usage: a Free plan (25 credits a month), Starter at £19 a month ex VAT for a solo clinician (the lowest published paid price in our table), and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool, which keeps the cost down for clinics with part-time associates. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to model your own clinic. ### Are AI scribe prices quoted with or without VAT? It varies. Motics quotes ex VAT. Heidi says its prices exclude applicable sales taxes (one plan's label on its UK page says GST). Tandem, Lyrebird and Accurx don't state VAT treatment on their pricing pages. TORTUS's G-Cloud figures exclude VAT. Ask for a VAT-inclusive quote before comparing. ### Why do Lyrebird's prices differ between pages? On 10 October 2026 Lyrebird's UK pricing page showed Pro at £50 a month or £450 a year, while two help-centre articles showed £59 a month or £480 a year. We don't know which is current; the price at checkout is the one that applies. ### Is per-seat or credit-based pricing better? Per seat suits teams where everyone works full-time and uses the scribe all day. Credit-based pricing suits clinics where usage varies, with part-time associates, locums or seasonal peaks, because you pay for notes written rather than people. Motics credits also cover its AI receptionist, email and billing agents. You can model both for your roster with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Does the price include PMS integration? Not always. Motics includes Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase integration on its plans. Heidi's Cliniko integration is available on its Practice and Enterprise plans. Tandem and Lyrebird don't list Cliniko. Check which plan includes your system before comparing headline prices. ### How much does TORTUS cost? TORTUS doesn't publish prices on its website. Its G-Cloud 15 pricing document lists a small-scale pilot at £44 per licence a month for up to 20 licences, three-month pilots from £5,000 to £30,000, and NHS trust enterprise pricing of £200,000 a year for up to 100,000 hours of audio, all ex VAT. It's sold to NHS trusts and, via X-on, GP practices. ### Are AI scribes worth the cost? Usually, if note-writing takes clinical or personal time. Clinicians reported spending an average of 13.5 hours a week on documentation in a 2022 survey reported by HETT, and a working scribe can return a large part of that. Every note still needs clinician review, and specialty fit varies, so trial a scribe on your real caseload before you commit to annual billing. Motics' Free plan lets you do that without a card. ### Sources - [Heidi — UK pricing (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration (plan availability) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/integrations/cliniko) - [Tandem Health — pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing) - [Lyrebird Health — UK pricing page (£50/month, £450/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — Pricing, how do I pay? (£59/month, £480/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/10066768-pricing-how-do-i-pay) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — plan comparison (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/15884012-plan-comparison-which-plan-is-right-for-you) - [Accurx — Scribe pricing (per patient, per year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/scribe-pricing) - [TORTUS — G-Cloud 15 service listing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-15/services/844300766833856) - [TORTUS — G-Cloud 15 pricing document (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://assets.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-15/documents/722631/844300766833856-pricing-document-2026-01-07-1444.pdf) - [Anima — home page (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.animahealth.com/) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [HETT — clinicians spend a third of working hours on documentation (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://blog.hettshow.co.uk/research-reveals-clinicians-spend-a-third-of-working-hours-on-clinical-documentation) ## Clinical Documentation Audit for UK Clinics: How to Audit 100% of Notes (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinical-documentation-audit-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-06-10. A clinical documentation audit checks that your clinic's notes are accurate, complete, and contemporaneous — the standard UK regulators expect. Most clinics still do this manually: a senior clinician samples a handful of notes per clinician each quarter, typically covering only a few percent of records. AI documentation audit flips the model by reviewing 100% of notes against your quality criteria and surfacing exceptions for human review. In UK private practice, Motics Audit Agent serves private and allied-health clinics, while Clinical Guardian serves NHS primary and urgent care. Key takeaways: - The regulatory bar is record-level, not sample-level: CQC's good-governance regulation (Regulation 17) expects providers to securely maintain accurate, complete, and contemporaneous records for every service user, and HCPC standards require registrants to keep full, clear, and accurate records. - Manual audit doesn't scale: a quarterly sampling round typically takes a senior clinician a full day and still covers only a small percentage of notes — and coverage gets worse as the clinic grows. - AI audit reverses the maths: every note is checked against your criteria (structure, consent recorded, objective measures, treatment plan, follow-up), with exceptions routed to a human — governance scales with caseload instead of senior-clinician time. - Audit pairs naturally with AI scribes: as more notes are AI-drafted, clinics need systematic assurance that filed documentation meets their standards — review-then-audit closes the loop. - Inspection value is evidence: '100% of notes checked monthly, exceptions actioned' is a materially stronger well-led story than 'we sample some notes quarterly'. ### Manual sampling vs AI documentation audit | | Manual sampling audit | AI documentation audit | | --- | --- | --- | | Coverage | A handful of notes per clinician per quarter — typically a low single-digit % of records | 100% of notes, continuously or on a schedule | | Who does the work | A senior clinician, often a full day per round | AI applies the criteria; humans review flagged exceptions | | Consistency | Varies by auditor and day | Same criteria applied identically to every note | | Feedback speed | Weeks–months after the consultation | Days, while the consultation is still fresh | | Inspection evidence | Sample results and a policy | Coverage statistics, exception logs, and resolution trails | | Cost shape | Senior-clinician time, growing with headcount | Subscription/usage cost, flat-ish as you grow | ### What a clinical documentation audit actually checks A documentation audit reviews clinical records against an agreed standard. For a UK private or allied-health clinic that standard usually combines four layers: regulatory (records that are accurate, complete, and contemporaneous), professional (HCPC Standard 10 requires registrants such as physiotherapists to keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone they care for, treat, or provide other services to; the CSP's record-keeping guidance notes that poor record keeping is among the most common reasons physiotherapists are referred to the HCPC), clinical quality (does the note capture subjective and objective findings, assessment, plan, consent, safety-netting?), and commercial (does the documentation support the invoice — increasingly checked by insurers). The uncomfortable truth is that the bar is record-level while most audit practice is sample-level. CQC's good-governance expectations apply to every service user's record, not a quarterly selection — and when something goes wrong (a complaint, an insurer dispute, a medico-legal request), it's always a specific record that gets pulled, not your sample. ### Why manual audit stops working as clinics grow The standard model — a senior clinician samples a few notes per clinician per quarter against a checklist — has three structural problems. It's expensive in exactly the wrong currency: your most senior clinical time. It's statistically thin: a clinic generating a few thousand notes a quarter and sampling a few dozen is checking a low single-digit percentage, so most documentation issues are simply never seen. And it's slow: feedback lands weeks after the habit that caused it, which is why the same findings recur round after round. Growth makes all three worse — double the clinicians and you double the audit burden or halve the coverage. ### How AI documentation audit works - Codify your standard: the audit criteria your senior clinicians already apply — note structure, consent documented, objective measures present, treatment plan and follow-up recorded, red flags addressed — are configured once, with clinical input. - Audit everything: the AI reviews every filed note against those criteria — new notes as they're filed, and historically as a baseline sweep. - Route exceptions to humans: notes that fail criteria surface in a review queue with the reason flagged; clean notes are logged as evidence. Clinicians get specific, timely feedback instead of quarterly generalities. - Report for governance: coverage, pass rates, recurring issues by criterion and clinician, and resolution trails — the dashboard a registered manager actually wants before an inspection. Where this fits with AI scribes: as scribes draft more of the record, audit becomes the assurance layer. The clinician reviews each AI-drafted note before filing — audit then verifies, systematically and after the fact, that what's being filed across the whole clinic meets the standard. Draft → review → file → audit closes the documentation loop. ### The tools available in the UK This is the least crowded category in clinic AI — most vendors stop at the scribe. Two tools serve distinct markets: ### 1. Motics Audit Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics and groups that want 100% note coverage and CQC-ready evidence Pricing: Custom pricing as part of Motics' credit-based plans — audit shares the same credit pool as the scribe, phone, email, and billing agents. Motics Audit Agent reviews 100% of a clinic's clinical notes against configurable quality and compliance criteria — structure, consent, objective measures, treatment planning, follow-up — and surfaces exceptions for human review, with clinic-level reporting for governance and CQC readiness. It's the only audit tool in this guide built specifically for private and allied-health practice, and it shares a platform (and credit pool) with Motics' scribe and phone agents, so the clinics most exposed to AI-drafted documentation get the assurance layer on the same plan. Disclosure: Motics is our product. The honest framing of this category: it's young — fewer vendors and less public benchmarking than scribes — and any audit deployment needs clinical input up front to encode your standards properly. Audit output supports clinical governance; it doesn't replace clinical judgement or your registered manager's accountability. Strengths: - 100% note coverage replaces sampling - Built for private/allied-health clinics — physio-aware criteria out of the box - Exception-based workflow: senior clinicians review flags, not everything - Shares one platform and credit pool with scribe, phone, email, and billing - Evidence trail designed for CQC well-led conversations Limitations: - Custom pricing — budget via a demo with your own notes - Criteria need senior-clinician input at setup to reflect your standards - New category with limited independent benchmarking so far ### 2. Clinical Guardian Best for: NHS primary care, urgent care, and ambulance services running clinically-led peer review Pricing: Pricing on request. Clinical Guardian is a clinically-led quality assurance and audit platform serving NHS settings — GP practices, urgent care, and ambulance services — with configurable audits, risk stratification, peer-generated feedback, and a clinician right of reply. It works with data from the systems those services run, including EMIS and SystmOne, and is used at scale in NHS quality-assurance workflows. Its workflows, integrations and audit models are built around NHS primary and urgent care. Its clinician-led peer-review model is a different approach from automated criteria checking. Strengths: - Clinically-led peer-review methodology with right of reply - Established in NHS primary care, urgent care, and ambulance settings - Works with EMIS and SystmOne data - Risk stratification and service-level reporting Limitations: - Built for NHS services, not private allied-health clinics - Human peer-review model — coverage scales with reviewer time, not automatically - No public pricing ### How we chose This guide describes the documentation-audit obligations UK private clinics actually face — CQC good governance, HCPC record-keeping standards, CSP guidance for physiotherapy — and the two tools with verifiable UK presence in this category, drawn from vendor documentation and the regulatory sources linked below. The 'low single-digit percentage' characterisation of manual sampling coverage reflects the standard practice of auditing a handful of notes per clinician per quarter against typical private-practice note volumes; your clinic's exact figure depends on your sampling policy. Motics is our product and this is the category where we have the fewest competitors — which cuts both ways: we're motivated to talk it up, and you should discount accordingly. We've kept the regulatory framing to what the linked sources actually say, profiled Clinical Guardian fairly as the NHS-side reference point, and been explicit that this is a young category. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is a clinical documentation audit? A systematic review of clinical records against an agreed standard — checking that notes are accurate, complete, contemporaneous, and clinically adequate (structure, consent, objective findings, treatment plan, follow-up). UK clinics run them for four reasons: regulatory expectations (CQC good governance), professional standards (HCPC requires registrants to keep full, clear, and accurate records), clinical quality improvement, and commercial protection (insurer and medico-legal scrutiny of records). ### What does CQC expect for clinical record-keeping? CQC's good-governance regulation (Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014) requires providers to maintain securely an accurate, complete, and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user — and to operate systems that assess and monitor quality. The practical implication: the expectation applies to every record, and at inspection you'll be asked how you assure documentation quality, not just whether a policy exists. Systematic audit — with coverage, findings, and actions — is that assurance. ### How many notes should a clinic audit? The traditional answer is a sample — commonly a few notes per clinician per quarter — and it survives because manual audit is expensive. But the regulatory standard is record-level, and sampling exists for the auditor's benefit, not the patient's. If technology makes 100% coverage affordable (AI audit does), the defensible position shifts: check everything, review exceptions, and keep the evidence. Where manual is your only option, audit at least enough per clinician to be statistically meaningful, rotate criteria, and close the loop on findings. ### How does AI documentation audit actually work? You codify your audit criteria once (with senior-clinician input): required structure, consent documented, objective measures, plan and follow-up, red-flag handling. The AI then reviews every filed note against those criteria and routes failures to a human review queue with the reason flagged, while logging passes as evidence. Clinicians get specific feedback within days, and the clinic gets coverage statistics and exception trails for governance. Humans stay in charge of judgement; the AI removes the reading burden. ### Does using an AI scribe make documentation audit more important? Yes, in a specific way. Scribes require clinician review before filing — but review is a per-note, in-the-moment check by the same busy person all day. Audit is the systematic, after-the-fact assurance that what's actually being filed across the clinic meets your standard — catching drift, template gaps, and the corner-cutting that creeps in at 5pm. As more of the record is AI-drafted, that second layer is how a clinic demonstrates control of the new workflow to itself, its insurers, and its regulator. ### What's the difference between Motics Audit Agent and Clinical Guardian? Market and method. Motics Audit Agent is built for UK private and allied-health clinics: AI applies your criteria to 100% of notes and humans review the exceptions, on the same platform (and credit pool) as Motics' scribe and phone agents. Clinical Guardian serves NHS primary care, urgent care, and ambulance services with a clinically-led peer-review model — human reviewers, risk stratification, and right of reply — working with EMIS and SystmOne data. A private physio group wants the former; an NHS urgent-care provider evaluates the latter. ### How do we prepare documentation for a CQC inspection? Work backwards from what inspectors ask: how do you know your records are good? A defensible package is (1) a written record-keeping standard referencing HCPC/professional guidance, (2) systematic audit against it — coverage, findings, trends, (3) evidence that findings change behaviour (feedback, training, re-audit), and (4) governance oversight (who reviews the audit output and when). 100% AI coverage strengthens every element, but even a disciplined manual programme with a closed loop beats a thick policy with no audit trail. ### Sources - [CQC — Regulation 17: Good governance (record-keeping expectations)](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-17) - [HCPC — Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (Standard 10: keep records of your work)](https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-conduct-performance-and-ethics/) - [CSP — Record-keeping guidance for physiotherapy](https://www.csp.org.uk/professional-clinical/professional-guidance/record-keeping-guidance) - [Clinical Guardian — methodology](https://www.clinicalguardian.com/our-methodology) - [Clinical Guardian — platform](https://clinicalguardian.com/) - [Motics — Audit Agent](https://www.motics.ai/agents/audit/) ## How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost in the UK? (2026 Pricing Guide) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-cost-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. On 10 October 2026, UK AI receptionists for clinics were priced four ways: per practitioner (BookedSolid, from £49 a month), per call (Lyngo from £69, Aeva from £139), per minute or minute bundle (Verbalise £147 plus 55p a minute, ViveoAI from £349 per location, Remi from £89) and shared credits (Motics, from £98 a month on Team). For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because one credit pool pays for calls, notes, email and billing. Key takeaways: - Billing units differ more than prices: per practitioner (BookedSolid), per call (Lyngo, Aeva), per minute (Verbalise, ViveoAI, Remi, Motics) and per location (ViveoAI, Pabau). - In our worked example of 300 calls a month averaging 3 minutes, published prices ranged from about £119 (BookedSolid, 5 practitioners) to £642 (Verbalise, inc VAT). - VAT treatment varies: Verbalise quotes inc VAT; Motics, Lyngo, BookedSolid, Remi and Pabau's credits quote ex VAT; Aeva and ViveoAI don't say. - Some headline prices need reading carefully: Remi's £49 plan is messaging only (its cheapest voice plan is £89), and Pabau's £99 AI add-on is on top of a Pabau subscription whose price isn't published. - Motics' Phone Agent shares one credit pool with the Scribe, Email and Billing agents, with unlimited users and no per-location fees, so one Motics plan can cover several tools. Compare it with your total spend on those tools, not the receptionist alone, using the [calculator on our pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). - For NHS GP practices, InTouchNow publishes a price per completed AI call (from £1.00, falling to £0.70 above 10,000 calls); QuantumLoopAI EMMA and X-on Surgery Assist don't publish prices. ### UK AI receptionist prices in GBP per month (checked 10 Oct 2026) | Receptionist | Plan | Price (GBP per month) | Billing unit and allowance | VAT | Source checked | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics Phone Agent | Team | From £98 (704 shared credits) | Shared credit pool (704 credits); calls 3 credits a minute; extra credits £0.14 | Ex VAT; 15% off annually | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Motics Phone Agent | Scale | From £290 (2,640 shared credits) | 2,640 credits; extra credits £0.13; adds Audit agent | Ex VAT; 15% off annually | Motics pricing page, 10 Oct 2026 | | Verbalise | Single published price | £147 + 55p per minute | Per minute | Inc VAT | verbalise.ai, 10 Oct 2026 | | Lyngo (Able) | Starter / Growth / Pro / Scale | £69 / £125 / £199 / £450 | 45 / 100 / 200 / 500 calls; extra calls £1.50 / £1.25 / £1.00 / £0.90 | Ex VAT | lyngo.ai/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Aeva AI | Call tiers | £139 / £199 / £299 / £399 | 100 / 200 / 350 / 500 calls (plus same outbound allowance); extra calls £1.70 | Not published | aevaai.com/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | BookedSolid | Per practitioner | 1: £49 yearly / £59 monthly; 2–4: £99 / £109; 5: £109 / £119; 10: £161 / £189; 20: £309 / £363 | Practitioners; unlimited inbound calls and messages | Ex VAT | bookedsolid.health/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | ViveoAI | Core / Professional / Group | £349 / £599 per location; Group from £999 | 500 / 1,000 minutes per location, 1,500 pooled (Group); extra minutes £0.70 / £0.60 / £0.50 | Not published | viveoai.com/pricing, 10 Oct 2026 | | Remi | Basic / Lite / Complete | £49 (messaging only) / £89 / £329 | Lite 500 minutes, Complete 2,500 minutes; extra minutes 15p | Ex VAT | remireception.com/uk, 10 Oct 2026 | | Pabau | Engage Plus add-on | £99 per location, plus Pabau credits at £0.055 to £0.09 each | Per location; AI minutes use credits (credits per minute not published); requires a Pabau subscription (price not published) | Credits ex VAT; add-on not stated | pabau.com/pricing and Pabau support, 10 Oct 2026 | | InTouchNow (NHS GP practices) | Starter / All Calls | £1.00 / £0.90 per completed AI call, falling to £0.70 above 10,000 calls | Per completed call; calls passed back to reception are not charged | Not published | intouchnow.ai, 10 Oct 2026 | | QuantumLoopAI EMMA (NHS GP surgeries) | n/a | Not published | Not published | Not published | quantumloopai.com, 10 Oct 2026 | | X-on Surgery Assist (NHS GP surgeries) | n/a | Not published (chargeable product, by enquiry) | Not published | Not published | X-on help centre, 10 Oct 2026 | ### Four ways AI receptionists charge - Per practitioner, unlimited calls (BookedSolid): cost follows team size, not call volume. - Per call (Lyngo, Aeva): a monthly allowance of calls with a fixed price for each extra call, however long it lasts. - Per minute (Verbalise, ViveoAI, Remi, Motics): short booking calls are cheap, long calls cost more. ViveoAI and Remi sell minute bundles; Verbalise charges every minute. - Shared credits (Motics): call minutes draw 3 credits each from a pool that also pays for clinical notes, email and billing. Motics doesn't charge per call, per seat or per location. On list prices a credit costs about 11p to 14p (extra credits £0.13 to £0.14), which works out at roughly 33p to 42p per call minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount. ### Worked example: 300 calls a month Our assumptions: one site, five practitioners, 300 inbound calls a month averaging 3 minutes (900 minutes), monthly billing, list prices only. These are illustrations, not quotes. Your own call length is the biggest variable, so check your phone system's reports first. | Receptionist | Cheapest plan that covers it | Estimated monthly cost | VAT | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | BookedSolid | 5 practitioners, billed monthly | £119 | Ex VAT | | Remi | Lite: £89 + 400 extra minutes at 15p | £149 | Ex VAT | | Motics | Scale entry pack (2,640 credits): £290 + 60 extra credits at £0.13 (phone use only) | About £298 | Ex VAT | | Aeva AI | 350-call tier | £299 | Not published | | Lyngo | Pro: £199 + 100 extra calls at £1.00 | £299 | Ex VAT | | ViveoAI | Professional (1,000 minutes) | £599 | Not published | | Verbalise | £147 + 900 minutes at 55p | £642 | Inc VAT (about £535 ex VAT) | | Pabau | Engage Plus £99 + AI minute credits | Can't calculate: credits per AI minute not published | Add-on not stated | Two caveats on the example. Motics' figure uses the whole credit pool for calls; any notes, email or billing work would draw on the same credits, so for a clinic replacing a scribe subscription too, the comparison is with the combined cost. And the cheapest option isn't automatically the best fit: Remi is a general small-business receptionist whose policy says it doesn't ask for medical or health details, while ViveoAI is built for dental PMS integration. ### How to budget: start from your call volume - Count your calls. Your phone system (or missed-call log) gives you inbound calls per month. Include the ones that ring out, because recovering those is the point. - Estimate minutes. Booking calls typically run a few minutes; simple questions take less. Calls per month × average minutes = your volume baseline. - Price that volume under each model. Per minute: base fee plus minutes × rate. Per call: the tier that covers your calls plus any extra calls. Per practitioner: your team size. Shared credits: minutes × 3 credits, priced in the [calculator on our pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). - Then weigh what the call achieves. An AI that takes messages still leaves your team returning calls; an AI that books directly into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase removes the callback. Price per resolved call, not per answered call. The baseline isn't zero. Unanswered calls cost bookings, and outsourced call-answering typically charges a base fee plus per-call rates and still mostly takes messages for your team to return. At clinics offering surgical work, one self-pay enquiry can lead to treatment worth £11,000 or more (PrivateHealth.co.uk lists UK private hip replacements from about £10,800). Estimate your own missed-call number with the [Motics missed-call calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/). ### Costs to check beyond the headline rate - Setup and onboarding: ask whether configuration, call-flow design and PMS connection are included. - Escalation behaviour: what happens, and what's charged, when the AI hands a call to your team or takes a message out of hours. - Volume changes: on usage plans, what happens when the allowance runs out (overage or a hard stop); on fixed plans, whether rates change at volume. - VAT: Verbalise quotes inc VAT and most others ex VAT or not at all, so put every price on the same basis before comparing. - Contract term: month-to-month or annual commitment, and what cancellation looks like. Trial on your real call flow first. ### NHS GP practices The NHS-focused receptionists price differently from the clinic tools above. InTouchNow publishes a price per completed AI call (£1.00 on Starter, £0.90 on All Calls, falling to £0.70 above 10,000 calls) and doesn't charge for calls passed back to reception. QuantumLoopAI EMMA and X-on Surgery Assist don't publish prices. If you're budgeting for a practice or PCN, ask each vendor for the pricing basis, what onboarding includes and the contract term, and get the information-governance documentation (DTAC, DPIA) with the quote. ### Which Motics plan fits - Team, from £98 a month (704 shared credits): the Phone Agent starts here, with the Email and Billing agents. The entry pack holds 704 credits in one shared clinic pool, and you can add unlimited users. At 3 credits a call minute, the entry pack covers about 230 call minutes a month, or a mix of calls, notes and emails. Extra usage is £0.14 a credit. - Scale, from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits): enough for 880 call minutes a month, close to the worked example above. Adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. Extra usage is £0.13 a credit. - Enterprise, custom pricing: for multi-site groups that need SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. - Free (£0) and Starter (£19 a month): Scribe and Chat only, with 25 and 110 credits a month. Free needs no card and Starter has no contract, so you can try Motics notes before you add the Phone Agent on Team. What the comparison shows: a Motics plan pays for calls, clinical notes, email and billing from one credit pool, under one data processing agreement, with unlimited users and no per-seat or per-location fees. The Phone Agent books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, patient data stays in the UK, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate, so a busy month is never cut off mid-clinic. Annual billing is 15% cheaper. Put your own call minutes and note volume into the [calculator on our pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to see your monthly cost. ### How we chose Every competitor price in this table was read from the vendor's own website, pricing page or help centre on 10 October 2026. Some pages render prices with scripts or a currency switch; where that happened we read the GBP values the page itself provides. We quote prices as published and say "not published" wherever a vendor doesn't state a price, an allowance or its VAT treatment. Verbalise is the only vendor quoting VAT-inclusive prices; the ex-VAT figure in the worked example divides by 1.2. Motics is our product and its prices come from our pricing page (ex VAT). The worked example uses our own assumptions about call volume and length and leaves out discounts, setup work and add-ons. Prices change, so check each vendor's page before you buy, and tell us if anything here is wrong. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does an AI receptionist cost for a UK clinic in 2026? Published entry prices on 10 October 2026 ranged from £49 a month (BookedSolid, one practitioner billed yearly, ex VAT) to £349 per location a month (ViveoAI Core). Most clinic-focused tools sit between £69 and £199 a month at entry level. Total cost depends on call volume and length: in our 300-call example, estimates ran from about £119 to £642 a month. To see what Motics would cost for your own call minutes and notes, use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Which AI receptionist is cheapest? There's no single cheapest, because vendors charge for different things. Per-practitioner plans (BookedSolid) follow team size, per-call plans (Lyngo, Aeva) follow the number of calls, and per-minute plans (Verbalise, ViveoAI, Remi, Motics) follow call length. In our 300-call example, list prices ran from about £119 to £642 a month. Motics also pays for notes, email and billing from the same credits, so if you would otherwise buy an AI scribe too, compare the combined cost. Put your own call reports into the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Is it better to pay per call or per minute? Per call (Lyngo, Aeva) favours long calls, because a ten-minute call costs the same as a one-minute call. Per minute (Verbalise, ViveoAI, Remi, Motics) favours short booking calls. Motics works out at roughly 33p to 42p a minute on monthly list prices, so a three-minute call costs about £1.00 to £1.26. ### Do AI receptionist prices include VAT? Verbalise quotes inc VAT. Motics, Lyngo, BookedSolid and Remi quote ex VAT, as do Pabau's credits. Aeva and ViveoAI don't say. Always ask for a VAT-inclusive total before comparing. ### How much does Pabau's AI receptionist cost? Pabau's AI agents on voice and chat are part of its Engage Plus add-on, shown at £99 per location a month (the page defaults to $159 until you switch to GBP). Calls, texts and AI minutes use Pabau credits, priced from £0.09 down to £0.055 each ex VAT, but Pabau doesn't publish how many credits an AI minute uses, and its core plan prices aren't published either. ### Does Motics charge extra for the Phone Agent? The Phone Agent is included from the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from the clinic's shared pool, and extra usage is billed at the plan's credit rate (£0.14 on Team, £0.13 on Scale). There are no per-seat or per-location fees, and the same credits also pay for notes, email and billing. The calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) shows the cost for your call volume. ### Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring a receptionist? It isn't a like-for-like choice. Most clinics keep their reception team and use an AI receptionist for the calls the team can't take: overflow when every line is busy, evenings, weekends and simultaneous calls. Price the AI against the bookings you lose to missed calls and the overtime spent returning them. On Motics, the Phone Agent starts on the Team plan from £98 a month, and the same credits also cover notes, email and billing. ### What do NHS GP surgery AI receptionists cost? InTouchNow, built for NHS GP practices, publishes a price per completed AI call: £1.00 on Starter or £0.90 on All Calls, falling to £0.70 above 10,000 calls, with calls passed back to reception not charged. QuantumLoopAI EMMA and X-on Surgery Assist don't publish prices. Ask each vendor for the pricing basis, onboarding and contract term, and get DTAC and DPIA documentation with the quote. ### Sources - [Verbalise — home page pricing (£147/month + 55p/min inc VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://verbalise.ai/) - [Lyngo — pricing (GBP ex VAT via currency toggle) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://lyngo.ai/pricing/) - [Aeva — pricing (GBP selected) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.aevaai.com/pricing) - [BookedSolid — pricing (practitioner slider, GBP ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://bookedsolid.health/pricing) - [ViveoAI — pricing (per location, GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://viveoai.com/pricing) - [Remi — UK pricing (ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://remireception.com/uk/) - [Remi — UK privacy policy (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://remireception.com/uk/privacy) - [Pabau — pricing (Engage Plus add-on) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://pabau.com/pricing/) - [Pabau — omnichannel patient engagement (AI agents on voice and chat) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://pabau.com/features/omnichannel-patient-engagement-software/) - [Pabau support — call and messaging pricing (credits) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.pabau.com/en/pabau2/call-and-messaging-pricing) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Phone Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/) - [InTouchNow — pricing (per completed AI call) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://intouchnow.ai/) - [QuantumLoopAI — EMMA (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.quantumloopai.com/) - [X-on Health — Surgery Assist (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.x-onweb.com/en/articles/392869-surgery-assist-introduction) - [PrivateHealth.co.uk — private hip replacement costs (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.privatehealth.co.uk/hip-replacement-surgery/costs/) ## AI Tools That Work With Cliniko (2026): Scribes, Receptionists & Billing URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-tools-for-cliniko/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. For UK clinics on Cliniko in 2026, the tools with verified Cliniko integrations are: AI scribes: Motics (our product), Preve, PatientNotes and CliniScribe; AI receptionists: Motics Phone Agent, Ivy by Verbalise and Aeva; insurance billing: Motics Billing Agent and Effra. Heidi's Cliniko integration needs its Practice or Enterprise plan. For UK Cliniko clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because it is the only tool here that covers notes, calls, email, billing and audit on one Cliniko-connected platform, with UK data storage and a free plan. Key takeaways: - Motics is our recommended Cliniko option for UK clinics: Scribe files reviewed notes into Cliniko, Phone Agent books, reschedules and cancels in the Cliniko diary, and Email, Billing and Audit run on the same platform and credit pool. - Other AI scribes that file notes into Cliniko for UK clinics: Preve, PatientNotes and CliniScribe. Heidi's Cliniko integration is on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans, per its support docs (checked 10 Oct 2026). - Other AI receptionists that book, reschedule and cancel in the Cliniko diary: Ivy by Verbalise and Aeva. - Motics Billing Agent covers insurance claims and revenue-cycle workflows alongside its scribe and phone agents; Effra bills UK insurers from Cliniko invoices. - Cliniko's own connected-apps directory has a dedicated artificial-intelligence category, a useful second check on any vendor's integration claim. ### AI tools with verified Cliniko integrations (June 2026) | Tool | Category | What the integration does | Published pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Scribe + receptionist + audit + email + billing | Files reviewed notes to Cliniko; books/reschedules/cancels in the diary; audit reads notes for quality review | Free plan (Scribe and Chat); Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits; adds Phone, Email and Billing) | | Preve | AI scribe (physio) | Syncs sessions and notes with Cliniko (also Nookal, PracSuite, Jane) | Free Basic; Integrated $19/week billed annually | | PatientNotes | AI scribe | One-click send-to-Cliniko for notes, summaries, and letters | Pricing on their site (page blocks automated access) | | CliniScribe | AI scribe (allied health) | One-click SOAP notes to Cliniko (and Nookal) | AUD pricing on their site | | Ivy (Verbalise) | AI receptionist | Books, reschedules, cancels appointments in Cliniko; takes payment | £147/month + 55p/minute inc. VAT | | Aeva AI | AI receptionist | Direct Cliniko sync — bookings, rescheduling, cancellations, deposits | £139–£399 a month for 100–500 calls; VAT not stated | | Effra | Insurance billing | Bills UK insurers from Cliniko invoices, reconciles payments back | Pricing on request | | Heidi | AI scribe | Practice and Enterprise plans only (not the Clinician plan) | Free tier; £45–£65/user/month billed yearly | ### Why the integration matters more than the AI Cliniko is one of the most widely used practice management systems in UK allied health, and for Cliniko clinics the practical question about any AI tool isn't 'how clever is it?' but 'does it write into Cliniko?'. A scribe without integration produces a draft you copy and paste into the record, patient by patient — still faster than typing, but a tax paid on every consultation. A receptionist without diary access can only take messages. Integration is where the time saving compounds: notes file themselves after review, bookings land in the diary during the call, and invoices flow to the insurer without re-keying. Cliniko maintains a public connected-apps directory with a dedicated [artificial-intelligence category](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/artificial-intelligence/) — worth checking as a second source whenever a vendor claims Cliniko support. Most integrations connect via a Cliniko API key; one practical setup note from real deployments: generate the API key from a user account with sufficient permissions, or bookings can fail mid-flow for permission reasons. ### What's available, by category #### AI scribes that file notes into Cliniko Motics Scribe is our recommended option: it drafts physio-first SOAP notes, treatment plans and referral letters from ambient capture or dictation, and files them to Cliniko after clinician review (Nookal and Meddbase are also supported). The other verified options: Preve is physio-specific with a free tier; its integrated plan syncs Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Jane. PatientNotes offers a documented one-click send-to-Cliniko for notes, patient summaries and letters (data processed in Sydney, so note the overseas transfer in your DPIA). CliniScribe sends SOAP notes to Cliniko or Nookal in one click (Australia-first compliance framing). Heidi offers a Cliniko integration on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans; it isn't available on the Clinician plan. #### AI receptionists that book into the Cliniko diary Motics Phone Agent is our recommended option: it answers calls 24/7, books, reschedules and cancels appointments directly in Cliniko, and passes complex calls to your team. It is the most-mentioned AI receptionist in the HMDG Private Practice Barometer. The other verified options: Ivy by Verbalise books, reschedules, cancels and takes payment in Cliniko, with published pricing (£147/month + 55p/minute inc. VAT). Aeva syncs bookings, rescheduling, cancellations and deposits with Cliniko, positioned for overflow and after-hours cover (from £139 a month for 100 calls; compliance details on request). #### Billing automation on Cliniko Motics Billing Agent covers insurance claims, pre-authorisation and revenue-cycle workflows as part of the Motics suite, sharing the same credit pool as the scribe and phone agents; it is included from the Team plan. Effra is a Cliniko connected app that bills 'all major UK insurers' from claim to payment: it pulls invoices from Cliniko, submits claims, reconciles remittances and records payments back. Effra prices on request. Governance note for any Cliniko AI integration: connecting a tool via API key gives it access to patient data, so run the same five checks as for any clinic AI — patient consent where audio is captured, data residency, a signed data processing agreement, no AI training on patient data, and clinician review before anything enters the record. The integration changes where data flows, not your obligations. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required. Around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics is the only tool on this page that covers notes, calls, email, billing and audit on one Cliniko-connected platform, so a clinic needs one vendor, one data processing agreement and one invoice. Every agent draws on one shared credit pool, Team and Scale include unlimited users with no per-seat fees, and patient data is stored in the UK. Start on the free plan, or size your clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) (prices exclude VAT). ### How we chose Every integration on this page was verified on 10 June 2026 against either Cliniko's public connected-apps directory, the vendor's own integration documentation, or both; the Heidi exception is documented from Heidi's own support article on Cliniko integration availability. Pricing was read from vendors' public pricing pages where published, and marked 'on request' where not. Heidi prices and Cliniko plan availability were checked again on 10 October 2026. Motics is our product and appears in three categories on this page. We've listed every competing Cliniko integration we could verify, including four scribes that compete directly with ours, and linked Cliniko's own directory so you can check for new arrivals. One transparency note: Motics itself is not currently listed in Cliniko's directory. Our integration is documented at motics.ai and you can verify it on the free plan, which is why we recommend checking both the directory and vendor documentation for any tool. Cliniko is a product of Red Guava; Motics is an independent integration partner, not affiliated with or endorsed by Cliniko. ### Frequently asked questions ### Which AI scribes integrate with Cliniko? For UK clinics in 2026: Motics (Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase; physio-first notes filed after clinician review, with UK data storage), Preve (Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, Jane; physio-specific with a free tier), PatientNotes (one-click send-to-Cliniko; data processed in Sydney) and CliniScribe (one-click SOAP notes to Cliniko or Nookal; Australia-first compliance). Heidi's Cliniko integration needs its Practice or Enterprise plan. Motics is our recommendation because the same Cliniko connection also powers its phone, email and billing agents. ### Does Heidi integrate with Cliniko in the UK? Heidi offers a Cliniko integration on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed yearly) and Enterprise plans. Its support docs say it isn't supported on the Clinician (individual) plan (checked 10 Oct 2026). Motics Scribe files reviewed notes into Cliniko for UK clinics today, and you can test it on the free plan. ### Can an AI receptionist book appointments directly into Cliniko? Yes. Three do it today: Motics Phone Agent (books, reschedules and cancels in Cliniko 24/7; included from the Team plan from £98 a month (704 shared credits), with calls at 3 credits a minute), Ivy by Verbalise (booking, rescheduling, cancellation and payment collection at £147/month + 55p/minute inc. VAT) and Aeva (Cliniko sync including deposits, from £139 a month for 100 calls). Direct diary booking is the feature that separates an AI receptionist from an answering service, so confirm it on a test call during any trial. ### How do AI tools connect to Cliniko technically? Almost all connect via a Cliniko API key that you generate inside Cliniko and paste into the AI tool, scoping access to your account. Two practical tips: generate the key from a user with sufficient permissions (under-scoped keys cause bookings or note-filing to fail mid-flow), and record the connection in your data-protection documentation, since the key gives the vendor access to patient data. Cliniko's connected-apps directory lists integrations that have registered with Cliniko. ### Is it safe to give an AI tool access to my Cliniko data? It can be, with the same diligence as any processor relationship: a signed data processing agreement, clarity on where data is stored (UK/EU vs US/Australia — it varies widely across the tools on this page), a no-training-on-patient-data commitment, and clinician review before AI output enters the record. The API connection itself is standard practice; what matters is who's on the other end of it. Document the tool in your DPIA and privacy notice. ### Which AI tool covers the most workflows on Cliniko? Motics covers the widest span on a single platform: scribe (notes filed to Cliniko), receptionist (diary booking), documentation audit, patient email and insurance billing, all drawing on one shared credit pool with unlimited users on Team and Scale. The alternative is combining separate tools for notes, phones and insurer billing, which means several vendors, data processing agreements and invoices to manage. You can compare the cost of one Motics plan for your clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### What if a tool I want isn't on this list? Check Cliniko's own connected-apps directory (it has a dedicated artificial-intelligence category and is updated as vendors register), then ask the vendor two precise questions: 'is the Cliniko integration generally available in the UK today?' and 'does it write into Cliniko, or export for copy-paste?'. Vendors announce integrations at varying stages of readiness — 'integrates with Cliniko' can mean anything from two-way sync to a roadmap item, which is exactly why this page cites Heidi's support docs rather than its marketing pages. ### Sources - [Cliniko — connected apps: artificial intelligence category](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/artificial-intelligence/) - [Cliniko connected apps — Ivy AI Receptionist](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/ivy-ai-receptionist/) - [Cliniko connected apps — Aeva AI](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/aeva-ai/) - [Cliniko connected apps — PatientNotes](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/patientnotes/) - [Cliniko connected apps — CliniScribe AI](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/cliniscribe-ai/) - [Cliniko connected apps — Effra](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/effra/) - [Preve — pricing and integrations](https://preve.co/pricing) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Verbalise — Ivy pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://verbalise.ai/) - [HMDG Private Practice Barometer 2026](https://hmdg.co.uk/private-practice-barometer/ai-software-tools-physiotherapy-clinics-uk-2026/) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Aeva — pricing (GBP selected) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.aevaai.com/pricing) ## AI Tools That Work With Nookal (2026): Scribes & Receptionists URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-tools-for-nookal/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. For clinics running Nookal in 2026, the AI tools with verified integrations are: AI scribes: Motics (our product), Preve and CliniScribe, which all file notes into Nookal; and AI reception: Motics Phone Agent, which books, reschedules and cancels in the Nookal diary. Nookal's own directory also lists Heidi, PatientNotes and BookedSolid in its AI category. For UK Nookal clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because it is the verified option for both notes and diary booking, with UK data storage and a free plan. Key takeaways: - Motics is our recommended Nookal option: its Scribe files reviewed notes into Nookal and its Phone Agent answers 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels in the Nookal diary, on one platform and one credit pool. - Other AI scribes that file notes into Nookal: Preve (also Cliniko, PracSuite, Jane) and CliniScribe (also Cliniko). Motics also integrates with Cliniko and Meddbase. - Nookal publishes its own integrations directory with a dedicated 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes' category, a second check on any vendor's claim; it currently lists Heidi, PatientNotes and BookedSolid. - Nookal is an Australian practice management system, widely used by allied-health clinics. Check each AI vendor's UK data-residency position separately: the PMS and the AI tool can store data in different countries. Motics stores patient data in the UK. - Run the standard five governance checks before connecting anything: consent, data residency, a signed DPA, no training on patient data, and clinician review. ### AI tools with Nookal integrations (June 2026) | Tool | Category | What the integration does | Published pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Scribe + receptionist + audit + email + billing | Files reviewed notes to Nookal; books/reschedules/cancels in the diary | Free plan (Scribe and Chat); Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits; adds Phone, Email and Billing) | | Preve | AI scribe (physio) | Syncs sessions and notes with Nookal (also Cliniko, PracSuite, Jane) | Free Basic; Integrated $19/week billed annually | | CliniScribe | AI scribe (allied health) | One-click SOAP notes to Nookal (and Cliniko) | AUD pricing on their site | | Heidi | AI scribe | Listed in Nookal's integrations directory under 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes' | Free tier; £45–£65/user/month billed yearly | | PatientNotes | AI scribe | Listed in Nookal's integrations directory under 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes' | Pricing on their site (page blocks automated access) | ### Nookal and AI: what connects today Nookal is an Australian-built practice management system used by allied-health clinics — physiotherapy, podiatry, osteopathy, chiropractic, psychology, and more — including a meaningful UK user base. Like Cliniko, it publishes a public [integrations directory](https://www.nookal.com/integrations) with a dedicated 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes' category, which is the right second source whenever an AI vendor claims Nookal support. On the scribe side, Motics is our recommended option: it drafts physio-first SOAP notes, treatment plans and referral letters and files them to Nookal after clinician review. Preve (physio-specific, with a free tier) and CliniScribe (one-click SOAP notes, Australia-first) also integrate. Nookal's own directory additionally lists Heidi and PatientNotes in its A.I. category. That listing shows the integration exists, not necessarily that it is available in every region or on every plan, so confirm scope and UK availability with each vendor directly. On the reception side, Motics Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels appointments directly in the Nookal diary. That is the difference between an AI receptionist and an answering machine. Nookal's directory also lists BookedSolid in the same category. Ivy by Verbalise, a Cliniko-first receptionist, doesn't list Nookal support. Data residency nuance for Nookal clinics: your PMS and your AI tool can store data in different countries. Whatever Nookal's own hosting arrangements, each AI vendor's processing location is a separate question for your DPIA — Motics stores patient data in the UK; PatientNotes processes in Sydney; CliniScribe processes via OpenAI's API under Australian compliance framing. Ask every vendor where audio, transcripts, and notes live. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required. Around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics is the verified option on this page that both files notes into Nookal and books into the Nookal diary, and it stores patient data in the UK. Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing draw on one shared credit pool, Team and Scale include unlimited users with no per-seat fees, and the same platform also integrates with Cliniko and Meddbase. Start on the free plan, or size your clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) (prices exclude VAT). ### How we chose Integrations on this page were verified on 10 June 2026 against vendors' own documentation and Nookal's public integrations directory; where our only evidence is the directory listing, we say so and recommend confirming scope with the vendor. Pricing was read from vendors' public pricing pages where published. Motics is our product. Its Nookal integration is documented at motics.ai; it is not yet listed in Nookal's own directory, which is why we point you at both sources. Nookal is a product of its respective owner; Motics is an independent integration partner, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nookal. ### Frequently asked questions ### Which AI scribes integrate with Nookal? Verified in June 2026: Motics (files physio-first notes to Nookal after clinician review, with UK data storage; also integrates Cliniko and Meddbase), Preve (physio-specific, free tier; also Cliniko, PracSuite and Jane) and CliniScribe (one-click SOAP notes; also Cliniko). Nookal's own integrations directory additionally lists Heidi and PatientNotes in its 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes' category; confirm regional availability and plan requirements with those vendors directly. Motics is our recommendation because the same Nookal connection also powers its Phone Agent. ### Can an AI receptionist book appointments directly into Nookal? Yes. Motics Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels appointments directly in the Nookal diary, passing complex calls to your team with a structured message. It is included from the Team plan (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits), and calls use 3 credits a minute from the shared clinic pool. Nookal's directory also lists BookedSolid in its A.I. category; Ivy by Verbalise doesn't list Nookal support. ### Does Heidi work with Nookal? Heidi appears in Nookal's own integrations directory under 'A.I. and Clinical Scribes', which is Nookal-side evidence the integration exists. Before relying on it, confirm two things with Heidi directly: whether the Nookal integration is available in your region, and which plan it requires — for comparison, Heidi's Cliniko integration (a separate integration) is on its Practice and Enterprise plans only, so scope varies by PMS and plan. ### How do AI tools connect to Nookal technically? Via Nookal's API: you generate credentials inside Nookal and authorise the AI tool, which then reads the diary and writes notes or bookings within the access you've granted. Practical checks: generate credentials from an account with sufficient permissions, record the connection in your data-protection documentation (the vendor becomes a processor of patient data), and test the round trip — a note filed to the right patient, a booking landing in the right diary column — before going live. ### What should a UK clinic on Nookal check before connecting an AI tool? The same five checks as any clinic AI, plus one Nookal-specific point. The five: patient consent (for ambient recording), data residency (UK/EU vs US/Australia — it varies widely across the tools on this page), a signed data processing agreement, no AI training on patient data, and mandatory clinician review before output enters the record. The Nookal-specific point: your PMS and your AI tool are separate processors in your DPIA — document both. ### What if the AI tool I want doesn't integrate with Nookal? You can still use it with a copy-paste workflow (generate the note in the tool, paste it into Nookal), which keeps most of the drafting time saving but adds a per-patient step and a second place where patient data lives, so cover it in your DPIA. Before settling for that, ask the vendor two precise questions: 'is a Nookal integration generally available today?' and 'does it write into Nookal, or export for copy-paste?'. Motics Scribe and Phone Agent connect to Nookal natively today, and you can test the Scribe on the free plan. ### Sources - [Nookal — integrations directory (A.I. and Clinical Scribes category)](https://www.nookal.com/integrations) - [Preve — pricing and integrations](https://preve.co/pricing) - [CliniScribe — pricing (PMS integrations: Cliniko and Nookal)](https://cliniscribe.ai/pricing) - [Heidi — UK pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs, for regional-scope context) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## AI Tools That Work With Meddbase (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-tools-for-meddbase/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Meddbase is a UK cloud practice management and EHR platform used by private practices, occupational health providers and specialty clinics (acquired by Cority in January 2025). The integrated AI option we can verify in 2026 is Motics (our product): its Scribe files reviewed notes into Meddbase and its Phone Agent books directly into the Meddbase diary. Most other clinic AI tools don't list Meddbase support. For Meddbase clinics, Motics is the recommended option because it connects both notes and bookings natively, with UK data storage and a free plan. Key takeaways: - Motics is our recommended option for Meddbase: Scribe Agent files physio- and clinic-shaped notes after clinician review, and Phone Agent books, reschedules and cancels in the Meddbase diary. - Most of the AI tools popular in UK allied health are Cliniko-ecosystem first (Preve, PatientNotes, CliniScribe, Ivy, Aeva, Effra) and don't list Meddbase support. Ask any vendor the precise question: 'is a Meddbase integration generally available today?' - Meddbase serves a more medical and occupational-health market than Cliniko/Nookal, so consent, audit, and documentation standards lean clinical — the same five AI governance checks apply, with insurer billing workflows often in scope. - Any scribe works with Meddbase via copy-paste if you accept a per-patient paste step; reception without diary integration drops to message-capture. - Meddbase publishes an integrations page but no public app directory on the Cliniko model — vendor confirmation matters more here. ### AI options for Meddbase clinics (June 2026) | Option | Meddbase status | What that means day-to-day | Published pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics Scribe | Integrated | Drafts notes, letters, and summaries; files to Meddbase after clinician review | Free plan; Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) | | Motics Phone Agent | Integrated | Answers 24/7; books, reschedules, and cancels in the Meddbase diary | From the Team plan, from £98 a month (704 shared credits) | | Heidi / Preve / PatientNotes / CliniScribe (scribes) | No Meddbase integration advertised | Copy-paste workflow: draft in the tool, paste into Meddbase | See each vendor's site | | Ivy (Verbalise) / Aeva (receptionists) | Cliniko-focused; no Meddbase support listed | Message-capture at best — no Meddbase diary booking | Ivy £147/month + 55p/min; Aeva from £139/month (100 calls) | | Effra (insurance billing) | Cliniko connected app; no Meddbase integration advertised | Not applicable to Meddbase workflows today | Pricing on request | ### Meddbase and AI: a different ecosystem from Cliniko Meddbase is a UK cloud-based medical practice management and EHR platform from Medical Management Systems (founded 2004, London; acquired by Cority in January 2025). Its market skews more medical than the Cliniko/Nookal world — private GP and specialist practices, occupational health, corporate healthcare — which changes the AI landscape: most of the AI tools that dominate allied-health comparisons grew up in the Cliniko ecosystem and don't list Meddbase support. Meddbase publishes an integrations page but no public third-party app directory, so the verification burden sits with the vendor claim. Motics is the integrated option we can verify and our recommendation (it's our product, so test it on your own Meddbase account before you commit). The Scribe Agent captures consultations ambiently or by dictation and files structured notes, letters and summaries into Meddbase after clinician review. The Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels directly in the Meddbase diary. The wider suite (documentation audit, patient email, insurance billing) runs on the same platform and credit pool, which is relevant for Meddbase's insurer-heavy private-practice users. For any other AI tool, the practical state in 2026 is workaround mode: scribes via copy-paste (draft, review, paste into Meddbase — most of the time saving, plus a per-patient step), and receptionists in message-capture mode (calls answered and structured messages taken, but no diary booking). Both are liveable at low volume and taxing at scale. Occupational health note: Meddbase's OH user base handles employer-commissioned assessments where consent and report-routing rules differ from standard patient care. If you're deploying an AI scribe in OH work, configure consent capture and report templates for that context explicitly, and reflect the data flows (worker, employer, clinician) in your DPIA — the five standard AI governance checks still apply, with an extra party in the diagram. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required. Around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics is the only option on this page with a Meddbase integration for both notes and diary booking; the other tools listed fall back to copy-paste or message-capture. Patient data is stored in the UK, Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing draw on one shared credit pool, and Team and Scale include unlimited users with no per-seat fees. Start on the free plan, or size your clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) (prices exclude VAT). ### How we chose Meddbase platform facts were verified against meddbase.com and Cority's acquisition announcement on 10 June 2026. The Motics–Meddbase integration is documented by us (Motics). It's our product, and there's no independent Meddbase app directory to cross-check against, so we recommend verifying it the reliable way: on the free plan with your own Meddbase account. Statements that other tools don't integrate reflect what those vendors advertised as of the same date. Meddbase is a trademark of its owner; Motics is an independent integration partner, not affiliated with or endorsed by Meddbase or Cority. ### Frequently asked questions ### Which AI scribes integrate with Meddbase? As of June 2026, Motics Scribe is the integrated option we can verify: it files notes, letters and summaries into Meddbase after clinician review. The scribes popular in the Cliniko ecosystem (Heidi, Preve, PatientNotes, CliniScribe) don't advertise Meddbase integrations; they work via copy-paste. Since Motics is our product, don't take our word for it: start on the free plan with your own Meddbase account and test the round trip before committing. ### Can an AI receptionist book into the Meddbase diary? Motics Phone Agent does. It answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels appointments directly in Meddbase, passing complex calls to your team. It is included from the Team plan (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits). The Cliniko-focused receptionists (Ivy by Verbalise, Aeva) don't list Meddbase support, which leaves them in message-capture mode at best for Meddbase clinics. As ever, verify diary booking on a test call rather than from a feature list. ### How much does Motics cost for a Meddbase clinic? The same as for any clinic. Motics has a free plan (25 credits a month, around one Scribe note a day, no card), Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users, the Phone, Email and Billing agents and one shared credit pool, and Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits) with the Audit agent. All prices are ex VAT. Estimate your own cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Does Heidi work with Meddbase? Heidi doesn't advertise a Meddbase integration (its documented PMS integrations don't include Meddbase; its Cliniko integration is on its Practice and Enterprise plans only). Heidi can be used alongside Meddbase via copy-paste: draft the note in Heidi, review it, paste it into Meddbase. If native Meddbase filing matters to you, Motics Scribe files reviewed notes into Meddbase today, and you can test it on the free plan. ### What should a Meddbase clinic check before connecting any AI tool? The standard five: patient consent for ambient recording, data residency (UK/EU vs overseas), a signed data processing agreement, no AI training on patient data, and clinician review before anything enters the record. Two Meddbase-specific additions: confirm the integration claim directly (there's no public Meddbase app directory to cross-check), and if you do occupational health work, map the employer-worker-clinician data flows in your DPIA before switching the scribe on. ### What is Meddbase and who makes it? Meddbase is a UK cloud-based practice management and electronic health record platform built by Medical Management Systems (London, founded 2004), serving private practices, occupational health providers, corporate healthcare, and specialty clinics. In January 2025 it was acquired by Cority, the EHS software group. It covers scheduling, clinical records, billing, and reporting, with an integrations page for connected services. ### Sources - [Meddbase — practice management platform](https://www.meddbase.com/) - [Cority — Cority acquires occupational health software Meddbase (January 2025)](https://www.cority.com/news-media/cority-acquires-occupational-health-software-meddbase/) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration availability (support docs, for PMS-scope context) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/9576012) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Aeva — pricing (GBP selected) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.aevaai.com/pricing) - [Verbalise — pricing (£147/month + 55p/min inc VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://verbalise.ai/) ## AI Tools for Jane Clinics in the UK (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-tools-for-jane/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Jane (jane.app) ships its own AI Scribe at $15/month per practitioner, but it's currently available to US and Canadian clinics only. Motics (our product) does not integrate with Jane: on Jane, Motics Scribe works by copy-paste and Motics Phone Agent answers calls in message-capture mode. Preve integrates Jane directly; no AI receptionist we track books into the Jane diary. For UK Jane clinics, Motics is still our recommendation because it covers notes and calls on one platform, with UK data storage and a free plan. Key takeaways: - Motics does not integrate with Jane. On Jane, Motics Scribe works by copy-paste (draft, review, paste) and Motics Phone Agent answers every call 24/7 in message-capture mode, with UK data storage and one credit pool for both. - Jane has a first-party AI Scribe ($15/month per practitioner, unlimited notes, 5 free notes/month to try), but per Jane's own product page it's currently US- and Canada-only, so UK clinics can't use it yet. - Preve is the third-party scribe with a verified Jane integration (alongside Cliniko, Nookal and PracSuite); it is physio-specific, with a free tier. - Heidi, PatientNotes and CliniScribe don't advertise Jane integrations: on Jane they are also copy-paste workflows. - No AI receptionist we track books directly into the Jane diary. Reception AI on Jane means message-capture: every call answered, booking requests structured for your team to enter. ### AI options for UK Jane clinics (June 2026) | Option | Jane status | What that means day-to-day | Published pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics Scribe | No Jane integration — copy-paste workflow | Draft physio-first notes in Motics, review, paste into Jane | Free plan; Starter £19 a month; Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) | | Motics Phone Agent (AI receptionist) | No Jane diary integration — message-capture mode | Answers 24/7, captures booking requests as structured messages for your team | From the Team plan, from £98 a month (704 shared credits) | | Jane AI Scribe (first-party) | US and Canada only, per Jane's product page | Not available to UK clinics yet | $15/month per practitioner (5 free notes/month) | | Preve | Integrated | Syncs sessions and notes with Jane (also Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite) | Free Basic; Integrated $19/week billed annually | | Heidi / PatientNotes / CliniScribe (scribes) | No Jane integration advertised — copy-paste | Draft in the tool, paste into Jane | See each vendor's site | ### The Jane situation: first-party AI, but not here yet Jane is a Canadian practice management platform (Jane Software, North Vancouver) used by interdisciplinary allied-health clinics, with a growing UK user base. Uniquely among the PMS platforms we cover, Jane ships its own AI scribe: AI Scribe, a paid add-on at $15/month per practitioner with unlimited notes and five free notes a month to try. Jane's own product page states it's currently available to US and Canadian clinics only, so UK Jane users can't switch it on yet. That leaves UK Jane clinics choosing third-party tools. Motics (our product) does not integrate with Jane, so on Jane it is a copy-paste workflow: draft physio-first notes in Motics, review them, paste them into Jane. You keep the main time saving (the drafting) and pay a per-patient paste step, with UK data residency, credit pricing, a free plan and the wider agent suite on one platform. Preve is the third-party scribe with a verified Jane integration: physio-specific (notes, exercise programmes, letters), with a free tier and Jane sync on its integrated plan. Other scribes, including Heidi, also work on Jane via copy-paste. ### AI reception on Jane None of the AI receptionists we track (Motics Phone Agent, Ivy by Verbalise, Aeva) advertises direct booking into the Jane diary. On Jane, reception AI therefore means message-capture mode: Motics Phone Agent answers every call 24/7, handles FAQs and captures booking requests as structured messages your team enters into Jane. That still recovers the after-hours and overflow calls that hit voicemail today; what it can't do is complete the booking in-call. If Jane diary integration matters to you, say so to vendors, because roadmaps follow demand. Data residency note for UK Jane clinics: you're already running a Canadian PMS, which your data-protection paperwork presumably covers. Adding an AI tool adds a second processor — and their residency positions vary widely (Motics: UK; Preve: not detailed publicly; Jane's AI Scribe when it arrives: check at launch). Each tool needs its own line in your DPIA regardless of what the PMS already does. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required. Around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): adds the Phone, Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): adds the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics does not integrate with Jane today, but it gives UK Jane clinics notes and call answering on one platform, with patient data stored in the UK. Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing draw on one shared credit pool, Team and Scale include unlimited users with no per-seat fees, and the free plan lets you test Scribe on your own consultations. If you later move to Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, Motics integrates with all three. Size your clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) (prices exclude VAT). ### How we chose Jane platform and AI Scribe facts were read from jane.app on 10 June 2026, including the US/Canada-only availability statement on Jane's own product page. Preve's Jane integration is listed on Preve's pricing page. Statements that other tools don't integrate reflect what those vendors advertised as of the same date. This category moves, so check current pages before deciding. Motics is our product, and on this page it's a copy-paste option for notes and message-capture for reception — we've said so plainly. Jane is a trademark of Jane Software; Preve and Heidi are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does Jane have its own AI scribe? Yes. Jane ships a first-party AI Scribe as a paid add-on at $15/month per practitioner, with unlimited notes and five free notes a month to try. The caveat for UK clinics: Jane's own product page states it's currently available to US and Canadian clinics only, so UK Jane users can't switch it on yet. UK clinics can use third-party scribes today, including Motics by copy-paste, which you can test on the free plan. ### Which AI scribes integrate with Jane for UK clinics? Preve is the verified third-party integration: its integrated plan ($19/week billed annually) syncs with Jane alongside Cliniko, Nookal and PracSuite, and the product is physio-specific with a free basic tier. No other scribe we track (Motics, Heidi, PatientNotes, CliniScribe) advertises a Jane integration as of June 2026; all work via copy-paste. Jane's own AI Scribe is US/Canada-only for now. ### Can I use Motics with Jane? Yes, via copy-paste. Motics does not integrate with Jane, so you draft the note in Motics, review it and paste it into Jane. You keep the main time saving (the drafting) and pay a per-patient paste step. Motics brings physio-first templates, UK data residency, credit-based pricing with a free plan, and a wider agent suite (Phone, Email, Billing and Audit) on the same credit pool. The same copy-paste workflow applies to Heidi and other scribes without a Jane integration. ### How much does Motics cost for a Jane clinic? The same as for any clinic. Motics has a free plan (25 credits a month, around one Scribe note a day, no card), Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users, the Phone, Email and Billing agents and one shared credit pool, and Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits) with the Audit agent. All prices are ex VAT. Estimate your own cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Can an AI receptionist book into the Jane diary? Not that we can verify. None of the AI receptionists we track (Motics Phone Agent, Ivy by Verbalise, Aeva) advertises direct Jane diary booking as of June 2026. On Jane, reception AI runs in message-capture mode: Motics Phone Agent answers every call 24/7, handles FAQs and captures booking requests as structured messages for your team to enter. That recovers missed calls; it doesn't remove the booking-entry step. Phone Agent is included from the Team plan (from £98 a month). ### Should UK Jane clinics wait for Jane's AI Scribe or adopt a third-party tool now? It depends on the pain. If evening note-writing is costing you hours today, months of waiting cost more than a per-patient paste step. The Motics free plan (no card required) lets you test Scribe on your own consultations now, and you can move to Starter or Team when your usage tells you to. Jane's scribe, when it reaches the UK, covers notes only: reception, audit and billing are separate decisions, and Motics covers them on the same credit pool. See [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to size it. ### Sources - [Jane — AI Scribe product page (pricing and US/Canada availability)](https://jane.app/features/charting-ai-scribe) - [Jane — practice management platform](https://jane.app/) - [Preve — pricing and integrations (Jane sync)](https://preve.co/pricing) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## UK Compliance Guide for Clinic AI (2026): GDPR, DTAC, DSPT, CQC & Consent URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinic-ai-compliance-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Deploying AI in a UK clinic is governed by rules that already exist — nothing about AI suspends them. The working stack: UK GDPR (health data is special category data needing an Article 9 condition on top of a lawful basis), patient consent for ambient recording (with a dictation fallback for patients who lack capacity, per Mental Capacity Act principles), a DPIA before go-live, CQC's good-governance regulation for your records and oversight, and — if you touch NHS work — DTAC and the Data Security and Protection Toolkit. This guide turns that into the checks a clinic owner can actually run — practical orientation, not legal advice. Key takeaways: - Health data is special category data under UK GDPR: processing it through an AI tool needs a lawful basis plus an Article 9 condition, a data processing agreement with the vendor, and a record of where data flows. - Ambient recording needs informed patient consent, documented per session — and a plan for patients who can't consent: Mental Capacity Act principles apply, and the practical answer is usually the scribe's dictation mode instead of recording. - Run a DPIA before go-live: AI processing of health data at scale is exactly the kind of processing the ICO expects impact assessments for. - Know which frameworks apply to you: DTAC and DSPT are NHS-facing (buyers' assurance and NHS-data access respectively); CQC's Regulation 17 applies to registered providers regardless; ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials are vendor signals worth asking for in any setting. - Five vendor questions cover most of the risk: Where is data stored? Will you sign a DPA? Is patient data used to train AI models? What's deleted, and when? Does the workflow force clinician review? ### Which framework applies to what | Framework | What it is | Who it applies to | What to do about it | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | UK GDPR — special category data | Health data requires a lawful basis plus an Article 9 condition | Every clinic, every AI tool touching patient data | DPA with vendor, DPIA, privacy-notice update, data-flow record | | Patient consent (recording) | Informed consent to capture the consultation | Any ambient/recording scribe | Per-session verbal consent, documented; dictation mode where consent isn't possible | | Mental Capacity Act 2005 | Framework for decisions when a person lacks capacity | Patients who can't consent to recording | Use dictation instead of recording; follow MCA principles for care decisions | | CQC Regulation 17 (Good governance) | Accurate, complete, contemporaneous records + quality systems | CQC-registered providers | Documentation standards, systematic audit, AI-use governance on file | | DTAC | NHS assessment framework for digital health technologies | NHS buyers; suppliers selling into the NHS | Ask NHS-facing vendors for their DTAC evidence; optional signal for private clinics | | NHS DSPT | Self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's 10 standards | Organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems | Required if you access NHS data; check vendors' DSPT status for NHS work | | ISO 27001 / Cyber Essentials | Information-security certifications | Vendor signals (and good practice for clinics) | Ask vendors for certificate scope and validity | ### Start here: the data protection layer Everything an AI scribe, receptionist, or audit tool touches is health data, and under UK GDPR health data is special category data: you need both a lawful basis (Article 6) and a separate condition for processing special category data (Article 9 — the health and social care condition is the usual fit for clinical care). The ICO's guidance is the canonical reference. Practically, this translates to four artefacts before any AI tool goes live: a data processing agreement with the vendor (they're your processor), an updated privacy notice telling patients an AI tool is involved and what it does, a record of data flows (what's captured, where it's processed and stored, what's retained and for how long), and a DPIA. On the DPIA: novel technology processing health data at scale is squarely the kind of processing the ICO expects a data protection impact assessment for. It doesn't need to be a thesis — identify the processing, the risks (mis-transcription entering the record, overseas transfers, vendor training on patient data, retention), and the mitigations (clinician review, UK/EU residency, no-training commitments, deletion schedules) — but it does need to exist before go-live, not after the first complaint. ### Consent for ambient recording — and the capacity question nobody covers Recording a consultation needs the patient's informed consent: tell them what's recorded, what the AI does with it, where it's processed, and that they can decline — then document the consent in the note. Good practice is verbal consent at the start of every session (some tools build the prompt in). The ICO's consent guidance sets the bar: consent must be a real, informed choice, and if saying no is hard, something is wrong with the design. The harder case is the patient who can't give informed consent to recording — common in community, neuro, and elderly-care caseloads. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 governs decisions for people who lack capacity, and its principles (assume capacity, support decision-making, act in best interests, choose the least restrictive option) point to a practical answer for scribes: don't record — dictate. Every credible scribe has a dictation mode; the clinician dictates findings after the session and the AI structures the note, with no patient audio captured at all. Clinics that treat this caseload should write the rule down: ambient recording only with documented consent; dictation mode otherwise. It's the difference between a tool that fits your whole caseload and one that quietly excludes your most vulnerable patients. ### The NHS-facing frameworks: DTAC and DSPT DTAC — the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria — is NHS England's assessment framework for digital health technologies, covering clinical safety, data protection, technical security, interoperability, and usability. It's a buyers' framework: NHS commissioners and providers use it to assure products they procure. If you're a private clinic, DTAC isn't a legal requirement for you — but a vendor that has been through DTAC (or supplies DTAC evidence) has answered, in writing, most of the questions this guide says to ask, which is why it's a useful signal even outside the NHS. DSPT — the Data Security and Protection Toolkit — is the NHS's self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's ten data security standards, required for organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems. If your clinic holds NHS contracts or accesses NHS systems, DSPT applies to you; either way, a vendor's DSPT status is worth checking for NHS-adjacent work. ### CQC, professional standards, and where AI audit fits For CQC-registered providers, Regulation 17 (Good governance) requires maintaining securely an accurate, complete, and contemporaneous record for each service user, and operating systems to assess and monitor quality. AI changes the inspection conversation in two directions: you should be able to explain which AI tools touch your records and the controls around them (consent, review, DPIA), and AI can strengthen your evidence — systematic documentation audit with 100% coverage is a materially better well-led story than quarterly sampling. Professional standards run alongside: HCPC registrants must keep full, clear, and accurate records, and the CSP publishes record-keeping guidance for physiotherapy — AI drafts don't dilute the registrant's personal responsibility for every filed note. Where Motics sits, for transparency: Motics (our product) processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic, has security aligned to ISO 27001, stores patient data in the UK, doesn't use patient data to train AI models, supports dictation as well as ambient capture, and requires clinician review before notes are filed. Every vendor should answer those same points in writing — ours are on motics.ai/security, and the checklist below works on anyone. Want one question answered in depth? Our [UK compliance hub](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/) has a page for each: [UK GDPR for AI scribes](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/uk-gdpr-ai-scribes/), [CQC and AI](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/cqc-ai-regulation-17/), [DTAC and DSPT](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dtac-dspt/), [DCB0129 and DCB0160](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dcb0129-dcb0160-clinical-safety/), [DPIAs](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/), [patient consent](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/patient-consent-ai-scribe/) and [call recording](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ai-phone-agent-call-recording/), each with primary sources and a free [DPIA template](https://www.motics.ai/tools/dpia-template/). ### The vendor checklist: ten questions in writing - Where is patient data stored and processed — UK, EU, or elsewhere? Any sub-processors overseas? - Will you sign a data processing agreement? (If hesitation: walk away.) - Is patient data used to train AI models? The answer should be an unqualified no. - What exactly is retained — audio, transcript, note — and for how long? What's the deletion schedule? - How is consent captured and recorded? Is there a dictation mode for patients who can't consent to recording? - Does the workflow force clinician review before output enters the record? - What certifications do you hold — ISO 27001 (what scope?), Cyber Essentials, DTAC evidence, DSPT status? - What happens to our data if we cancel? - Have you completed a DPIA template or clinical-safety documentation (DCB0129) we can reference in ours? - Who do we call when something goes wrong, and what's your breach-notification commitment? ### How we chose This guide summarises the frameworks as they stood on 10 June 2026, linking the canonical sources — ICO guidance for UK GDPR and consent, legislation.gov.uk for the Mental Capacity Act, CQC's regulation pages, NHS England's DTAC page, and the DSPT portal — rather than paraphrasing from memory. It's a practical orientation for clinic owners, not legal advice: for contentious cases (capacity disputes, novel data flows, NHS contracting) take advice from your indemnifier or a data-protection professional. Motics is our product and is mentioned once, in a labelled transparency callout, with the same checklist applied to it as to any vendor. The rest of the page is vendor-neutral by design — the frameworks don't care whose AI you buy. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do I need patient consent to use an AI scribe? For ambient recording, yes — recording a consultation processes special category health data, and patients need to know and agree: what's captured, what the AI does, where it's processed, and that declining is fine. Capture verbal consent at the start of each session and document it in the note. For dictation mode — where the clinician dictates after the session and no patient audio is captured — recording consent doesn't arise, though your privacy notice should still disclose AI processing of the dictated content. ### What about patients who lack capacity to consent to recording? Don't record them — dictate instead. The Mental Capacity Act 2005's principles (assume capacity, support decision-making, best interests, least restrictive option) govern care decisions for people lacking capacity, and an audio recording of the consultation is rarely necessary when a dictation workflow achieves the same documentation without capturing patient audio. Practical policy: ambient recording only with documented consent; dictation mode for everyone else. If your caseload is largely community, neuro, or elderly care, make dictation support a hard requirement when choosing a scribe. ### Do I need a DPIA before deploying clinic AI? Almost certainly. A data protection impact assessment is expected for processing likely to result in high risk — and systematic processing of special category health data with novel technology is the textbook case. Keep it proportionate: describe the processing, name the risks (transcription errors entering records, overseas transfers, vendor training on data, retention), and document the mitigations (clinician review, UK/EU residency, no-training commitment, deletion schedule, consent workflow). Do it before go-live, and revisit it when you add a new agent or the vendor changes sub-processors. ### Is DTAC required for private clinics? No — DTAC is NHS England's assessment framework for digital health technologies, used by NHS commissioners and providers when procuring; it isn't a legal requirement for private practice. It's still useful to you in two ways: a vendor with DTAC evidence has already answered the clinical-safety, data-protection, and security questions you'd otherwise have to ask one by one, and if you ever take NHS work, your tooling choices won't need re-litigating. Treat it as a strong signal, not a gate. ### What is the NHS DSPT and does my clinic need it? The Data Security and Protection Toolkit is an online self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's ten data security standards, required for organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems. A purely private clinic with no NHS data access doesn't need to complete it; a clinic holding NHS contracts, receiving NHS referrals with shared records, or accessing NHS systems does. Vendor-side, DSPT status is worth checking whenever your AI tool will touch NHS-origin data. ### What certifications should I look for in an AI vendor? In rough order of usefulness: ISO 27001 (ask for the certificate scope — organisation-wide vs a narrow slice), Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC evidence (for NHS-facing tools — TORTUS and Heidi, for example, publish DTAC positions), NHS DSPT status, and clinical-safety documentation (DCB0129) where the tool affects clinical workflows. Certifications are necessary-not-sufficient: pair them with the contractual answers — DPA, no-training commitment, residency, deletion — because a certificate doesn't bind behaviour; a contract does. ### Can AI vendors train their models on our patient data? Only if you let them — and you shouldn't. The question to put in writing: 'Is any patient data (audio, transcripts, notes, metadata) used to train or improve AI models, yours or your suppliers'?' The acceptable answer is an unqualified no, reflected in the DPA. Watch for soft language: 'we may use data to improve our services' can mean training. Among the tools we've reviewed, no-training commitments are published by several vendors (Motics included) — treat any ambiguity as a no-bid. ### What should our privacy notice say about AI? Plain-language additions covering: that the clinic uses AI tools for documentation/reception/administration, what they do (e.g. 'draft clinical notes from consultations for clinician review'), the consent process for any recording, where data is processed and stored, retention periods, the vendor's role as a processor, and patients' rights including how to decline recording. Keep it specific enough to be honest and short enough to be read — and update it when you add a new agent, not annually in arrears. ### Do I need to tell my indemnity provider or insurer about AI tools? Tell them — it's rarely required as a condition precedent, but it's cheap insurance against an awkward conversation after an incident. A one-paragraph notification ('we use an AI scribe with mandatory clinician review; consent and DPIA in place') typically draws either no objection or useful guidance. The same logic applies to CQC inspection prep: AI use you can explain, with controls on file, reads as well-led; AI use discovered ad hoc reads as the opposite. ### Does using AI change who is responsible for the clinical record? No — and every framework on this page assumes it. The clinician who files the note owns it: HCPC registrants' record-keeping duties apply to AI-drafted notes exactly as to typed ones, CQC's accurate-complete-contemporaneous standard doesn't care who drafted the first version, and 'the AI wrote it' is not a defence anywhere. That's why mandatory clinician review is a non-negotiable vendor requirement, and why documentation audit (sampling or 100%-coverage) matters more, not less, as AI drafts a growing share of the record. ### Sources - [ICO — special category data (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/special-category-data/) - [ICO — consent (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/consent/) - [Mental Capacity Act 2005 — legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/contents) - [CQC — Regulation 17: Good governance](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-17) - [NHS England — Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC)](https://digital.nhs.uk/services/digital-technology-assessment-criteria-dtac) - [NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit](https://www.dsptoolkit.nhs.uk/) - [HCPC — Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (Standard 10: records)](https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-conduct-performance-and-ethics/) - [CSP — Record-keeping guidance](https://www.csp.org.uk/professional-clinical/professional-guidance/record-keeping-guidance) - [TORTUS — compliance (example of NHS-facing vendor evidence)](https://tortus.ai/compliance) - [Heidi — UK compliance (example of published vendor evidence)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Motics — security](https://www.motics.ai/security/) ## AI Scribe vs Dictation vs Human Transcription (UK, 2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-scribe-vs-dictation/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. UK clinicians turn consultations into notes three ways in 2026. Ambient AI scribes (Motics, Heidi, and peers) listen to the consultation with consent and draft the structured note — least clinician effort, newest model. Speech-recognition dictation (Lexacom Echo, Dragon Medical One) types what you dictate — mature, fast, but you still compose every sentence. Human transcription (typists or services like Lexacom Scribe) converts your dictation later — familiar, with per-minute costs and turnaround delays. The incumbents themselves signal where this is heading: Lexacom now sells its own Ambient AI, and Microsoft cross-promotes Dragon Copilot — its ambient AI product — from the Dragon Medical One page. Key takeaways: - The three models differ in who does the composing: ambient AI drafts from the conversation itself; dictation types what you compose aloud; human transcription types it later. Composing is the slow part — that's why ambient saves the most time. - Dictation still has its place — it wins specific cases: patients who can't consent to recording (capacity), noisy multi-speaker environments, and clinicians who think best by dictating. Every credible AI scribe ships a dictation mode for exactly these. - The dictation incumbents are converging on ambient: Lexacom (25+ years in UK healthcare dictation) now sells its own Ambient AI product, and Microsoft cross-promotes Dragon Copilot — an ambient product — from the Dragon Medical One page. - Cost models differ structurally: human transcription bills per audio minute, dictation software per licence (pricing on request at Lexacom and Dragon Medical One), AI scribes from free tiers to per-seat plans (£45–£65/user/month billed yearly) to usage credits (Motics). - Whatever the model, the clinician owns the filed note — review is non-negotiable with AI drafts, dictation output, and human-typed letters alike. ### The three documentation models compared | | Ambient AI scribe | Speech-recognition dictation | Human transcription | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Who composes the note | AI drafts from the consultation; clinician reviews and edits | Clinician composes aloud; software types it | Clinician composes aloud; a person types it later | | Clinician time per note | Review only — typically the biggest saving | Dictation + correction time | Dictation time now, review later | | Turnaround | Seconds–minutes after the session | Real-time | Hours–days, depending on service | | Structure (SOAP, letters) | Drafted automatically to template | Whatever you dictate | Whatever you dictate, formatted by the typist | | Patient audio captured? | Yes (ambient mode) — consent required; dictation mode available | No — clinician voice only | No — clinician voice only | | Example tools (UK) | Motics, Heidi, Preve, TORTUS (NHS) | Lexacom Echo, Dragon Medical One | Lexacom Scribe, in-house secretaries | | Cost model | Free tiers; per-seat £45–£65/user/month billed yearly; usage credits (Motics) | Licence pricing on request (Lexacom, Dragon Medical One) | Per audio minute or salaried staff | ### The real difference: who does the composing Strip the branding away and clinical documentation has one bottleneck: composing the note — deciding what to say and saying it in clinical language. Human transcription and speech recognition both leave composing with the clinician; they only change who types. That's why a GP who dictates fluently saves real time over typing, but still spends cognitive effort narrating every letter. Ambient AI moves the composing itself: the consultation happens naturally, the AI drafts the structured note — subjective, objective, assessment, plan, or a referral letter — and the clinician's job collapses to review and correction. The saving isn't typing speed; it's not having to narrate your day twice. That framing also explains the failure modes. Ambient drafts occasionally include errors a composer wouldn't make (omissions, misattributed speakers), which is why clinician review is mandatory. Dictation produces exactly what you said — including everything you forgot to say. Human transcription adds turnaround delay and a per-minute meter. None of the three removes the clinician's responsibility for the filed record. ### The UK incumbents — and which way they're pointing Lexacom (Banbury, 25+ years, around 25,000 users) is the UK healthcare dictation incumbent — digital dictation and workflow (Lexacom 3), speech recognition (Lexacom Echo), and human transcription on a pay-per-audio-minute model (Lexacom Scribe), with a strong NHS and primary-care base. The strategic tell: Lexacom's unified platform now includes its own Ambient AI product — the incumbent itself treats ambient as the destination. Dragon Medical One, the medical speech-recognition standard originally from Nuance and now sold by Microsoft, remains a mature, capable dictation product for UK clinicians — and Microsoft's own UK product page cross-promotes Dragon Copilot, its ambient AI documentation product, from the same page. Neither incumbent publishes UK pricing; both quote per deployment. Read the direction honestly: the companies that built their businesses on dictation are building ambient products. That doesn't make dictation obsolete — it makes it a mode rather than a strategy. ### When dictation still wins - Patients who can't consent to recording. Ambient capture needs informed consent; for patients lacking capacity (community, neuro, elderly-care caseloads), Mental Capacity Act principles point to not recording at all. Dictating findings after the session documents the care without capturing patient audio — which is why a dictation mode should be a hard requirement in any AI scribe you buy. - Acoustically hostile sessions. Gym floors, hydrotherapy pools, group classes, multiple simultaneous conversations — environments where ambient capture degrades. Dictating afterwards is more reliable than transcribing chaos. - Clinicians who compose best aloud. Some clinicians produce their tightest clinical reasoning by narrating it. For them, dictation into an AI that structures the output (rather than raw speech-to-text) is the sweet spot — modern scribes' dictation modes do exactly this. - Medico-legal caution about recordings. Some clinics prefer not to create consultation recordings at all as a matter of policy. Dictation workflows sidestep the question entirely. The practical answer for most clinics is both, in one tool: ambient capture for routine consented consultations, dictation mode for capacity cases, noisy sessions, and personal preference — with the same templates, the same review step, and the same place the note files. That's how Motics is built (ambient + dictation into Cliniko, Nookal, or Meddbase), and it's a fair test to put to any vendor: 'show me both modes producing the same structured note.' ### How we chose Vendor facts were verified on 10 June 2026 against lexacom.co.uk (products and positioning; Lexacom publishes no pricing) and Microsoft's UK Dragon Medical One page (which itself cross-promotes Dragon Copilot; no public UK pricing). AI scribe pricing references our cost guide, where every figure was read from vendors' public pricing pages. We've avoided circulating-but-unverifiable claims about the dictation market (including usage-share figures we couldn't pin to a current primary source). Motics is our product and sells the ambient-plus-dictation model this page concludes in favour of — weigh that, and note the conclusion is also the incumbents' own: Lexacom sells Ambient AI and Microsoft sells Dragon Copilot. Lexacom and Dragon are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by either. ### Frequently asked questions ### What's the difference between an AI scribe and dictation software? Dictation software (Lexacom Echo, Dragon Medical One) types what you say — you still compose every sentence of the note aloud. An ambient AI scribe listens to the consultation itself (with patient consent) and drafts the structured note for your review — the composing moves to the AI. That's the time difference: dictation saves typing; ambient saves narrating your day twice. Most modern AI scribes also include a dictation mode, so the choice in practice is a tool that does both versus one that only types. ### Is an AI scribe better than Dragon Medical One? Different jobs, converging vendors. Dragon Medical One is mature medical speech recognition — excellent at turning fluent dictation into text in real time, licensed per deployment (UK pricing on request from Microsoft). It doesn't draft notes from the consultation itself. Microsoft's own UK page points users toward Dragon Copilot, its ambient product, for that. If your clinicians dictate happily and only want typing removed, DMO remains a strong choice; if the goal is not composing the note at all, that's the ambient scribe category — from Microsoft, the NHS-focused tools, or the clinic suites like ours. ### Does Lexacom have an AI scribe? Yes — Lexacom's unified platform now includes an Ambient AI product alongside its established lines: Lexacom 3 (digital dictation and workflow), Lexacom Echo (speech recognition), and Lexacom Scribe (human transcription billed per audio minute). Pricing is on request. For NHS practices already running Lexacom workflows, it's the lowest-friction route into ambient documentation; private allied-health clinics typically compare it against the scribes built for their PMS ecosystems (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase) and their note styles. ### Is human transcription still worth using in 2026? In shrinking niches. Human transcription (services like Lexacom Scribe, or in-house secretaries) still makes sense for long-form complex correspondence where a skilled medical secretary adds judgement, and for clinicians who want zero workflow change. Against it: per-audio-minute costs that scale linearly with caseload, turnaround measured in hours or days rather than seconds, and the same composing burden as dictation. Most clinics moving off transcription jump straight to ambient AI rather than to speech recognition. ### How do the costs compare across the three models? Structurally differently. Human transcription bills per audio minute (rates vary by service) — costs scale with every consultation, forever. Dictation software licenses per user, with UK pricing on request at both Lexacom and Dragon Medical One. AI scribes are the most price-transparent category: free tiers (Heidi, Preve), per-seat plans at £45–£65/user/month billed yearly, or usage-based credits (Motics — plans sized to what the clinic documents, shared across unlimited users). For a clinician documenting a full diary, any of the AI options typically costs less per month than a few hours of per-minute transcription. ### When should a clinic choose dictation over ambient recording? Four cases: patients who can't give informed consent to recording (capacity — Mental Capacity Act principles point to dictation, not recording); acoustically hostile sessions like gym floors and group classes; clinicians whose clinical reasoning is genuinely sharper when narrated; and clinics with a policy preference against creating consultation recordings. The practical conclusion isn't choosing dictation as your tool — it's requiring dictation mode in whatever ambient scribe you buy, so the same templates and review workflow cover the whole caseload. ### Do I still need to check notes if a human typed them or an AI drafted them? Yes, identically. The clinician who files the note is responsible for it under HCPC record-keeping standards and CQC's accurate-complete-contemporaneous expectation, regardless of whether it came from an AI draft, speech recognition, or a medical secretary. The review burden differs — AI drafts need checking for omissions and occasional misattribution, dictation output for recognition errors, human-typed letters for transcription slips — but the accountability is constant. Tools change who types; they don't change whose name is on the record. ### Sources - [Lexacom — products (Lexacom 3, Echo, Scribe, Connect)](https://www.lexacom.co.uk/lexacom-products/) - [Lexacom — unified platform including Ambient AI](https://www.lexacom.co.uk/all-new/) - [Microsoft — Dragon Medical One (UK)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/health-solutions/clinical-workflow/dragon-medical-one) - [Mental Capacity Act 2005 — legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/contents) - [HCPC — Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (records)](https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-conduct-performance-and-ethics/) - [Heidi — UK pricing (per-seat reference points) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Motics — pricing](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) ## AI Receptionist vs Telephone Answering Service: Which Should a UK Clinic Choose? URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-vs-answering-service-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-12. Last reviewed: 2026-06-12. A telephone answering service puts a human on your overflow calls and takes messages — you still ring the patient back to book. An AI receptionist answers every call 24/7 and completes the booking in the same call, directly in your practice management system. For most UK clinics the deciding question is simple: do you want messages taken, or appointments made? Key takeaways: - Answering services take messages; the booking still happens later, on a callback — and callback queues are where bookings are lost - AI receptionists complete the booking in the call, including evenings and weekends, synced with PMSs like Cliniko and Nookal - Answering services typically bill per call or per minute and rarely publish full price lists; 24/7 cover usually costs extra - Human services still win for callers who need extended reassurance or where you want every call handled by a person - Run your own numbers first: a clinic missing 15–25% of calls is usually losing far more in unbooked appointments than either service costs ### AI receptionist vs telephone answering service at a glance | | AI receptionist | Telephone answering service | | --- | --- | --- | | Who answers | AI voice agent, trained on your clinic | Outsourced human PA, shared across clients | | Availability | 24/7 including bank holidays, no extra tier | Office hours as standard; 24/7 usually an add-on | | Parallel calls | Answers simultaneous calls — no engaged tone | Limited by staffing at the bureau | | Outcome of a call | Appointment booked into your PMS in the call | Message taken; your team calls back to book | | Clinic context | Knows your services, hours, fees and diary | Works from a brief; limited clinical context | | Cost model | Usage-based (credits at Motics); predictable monthly plans | Per call or per minute, plus add-ons for out-of-hours | | Set-up | Live in an afternoon for most clinics | Days — briefing documents and call scripts | | Data handling | Should meet UK GDPR with UK data residency — ask the six governance questions | UK providers generally GDPR-compliant; check where call data lives | ### The real difference: a message taken is not an appointment made Both options exist to solve the same failure: calls that ring out while your team is treating, on lunch, or gone for the day. UK clinic phone reports commonly show 15–25% of inbound calls going unanswered around peak times. The difference is what happens to the call once it's saved. An answering service captures the caller's details and sends you a message — the patient is still unbooked, and converting that message depends on your team's callback getting through. An AI receptionist resolves the call there and then: it checks real availability in your practice management system and books the slot while the patient is still on the line. That distinction matters more than any pricing comparison, because the revenue you're protecting sits in completed bookings, not captured messages. Every callback queue leaks: patients book elsewhere, stop answering, or lose the urgency that made them call. If you want to quantify the leak for your own clinic, the [missed-call cost calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) turns three numbers into an annual figure. ### Where a human answering service still wins - Extended reassurance: some callers — distressed patients, complex safeguarding situations — are better held by a person, for as long as it takes. - Brand preference: some practice owners simply want every call answered by a human, and that's a legitimate position. - Non-diary work: bureaus will handle generic message-taking across everything you route to them, not just patient bookings. The honest counterweight: human bureaus answer one call per available PA, keep office hours unless you pay for more, and work from a written brief rather than your live diary. Providers like Moneypenny — the UK's best-known answering service — bill by the minute on package plans and position 24/7 cover as an add-on (published at an additional £35/month on their message-taking service). Most bureaus publish only partial pricing, so comparing total monthly cost means requesting quotes. ### Cost model: per call, per minute, or per use Answering services price per interaction — per call answered or per minute spoken — typically on a monthly package with overage rates. That's manageable at low volume but scales linearly with exactly the thing you're trying to encourage: more calls answered. AI receptionists are usage-based too, but the per-interaction economics are materially lower because no human time is consumed; Motics prices through credit-based plans sized to how much the clinic actually uses, shared across the team rather than per seat. For published UK figures across the category, see our [AI receptionist cost guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-cost-uk/). ### Governance: the same six questions apply to both Whichever route you take, patient call data is leaving your building. Ask where recordings and messages are stored, whether data stays in the UK, how long it's retained, and — for AI services — whether your patients' audio is used to train models. A serious vendor of either type answers these without hesitation. Our [UK clinic AI compliance guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinic-ai-compliance-uk/) covers the frameworks (UK GDPR, DTAC, DSPT) in plain English. The practical answer for most clinics: if your problem is messages getting lost, an answering service fixes it. If your problem is bookings getting lost — and for most clinics it is — you need the call resolved while the patient is on the line, at any hour. That's the job an AI receptionist is built for. ### How we chose Facts verified on 12 June 2026. Moneypenny's per-minute billing model and 24/7 add-on pricing are taken from their published UK pages (moneypenny.com); most UK answering bureaus do not publish complete price lists, so cost-model comparisons here describe structure rather than exact totals. Missed-call rate ranges reflect what UK clinic phone-system reports commonly show in our conversations with practice owners. Conflict of interest: Motics builds an AI receptionist, so we have a commercial interest in this comparison. We've kept the cases where a human bureau is the better fit explicit, and we'd rather you choose the right category than the wrong product. ### Frequently asked questions ### Can an answering service book appointments into my diary? Some bureaus offer diary booking as a premium service if you grant them access to your booking system, but message-taking is the standard product — the PA captures details and your team calls back. AI receptionists like Motics book directly into practice management systems such as Cliniko and Nookal as the default behaviour, in the same call. ### What does a telephone answering service cost for a UK clinic? Most UK bureaus bill per call or per minute on monthly packages and publish only partial pricing — expect to request a quote for a real total. Out-of-hours cover is typically an add-on (Moneypenny publishes 24/7 message-taking from an additional £35/month on top of a minutes plan). AI receptionists are usage-priced; published UK figures are collected in our AI receptionist cost guide. ### Is an AI receptionist safe to use with patient calls under UK GDPR? It can be, if the vendor handles data properly: UK data residency, no training on your patients' audio, defined retention periods, and a signed data processing agreement. Motics stores data in the UK, deletes call audio within 48 hours, and doesn't train models on patient data. Ask any vendor — human or AI — the same governance questions before routing patient calls to them. ### Can I use both together? Yes, and some clinics do during a transition: an AI receptionist takes first answer and overflow 24/7, with the option to transfer specific situations to your team or a human service. In practice most clinics find the transfer path they actually need is to their own staff rather than a second outsourced layer. ### Sources - [Moneypenny — Telephone answering service (per-minute billing model)](https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/telephone-answering-service/) - [Moneypenny — Message taking service (24/7 add-on pricing)](https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/message-taking-service/) - [Moneypenny — Answering service pricing: per minute vs per call](https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/resources/blog/answering-service-pricing-per-minute-vs-per-call/) - [Motics — Missed call cost calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) ## AI Receptionist vs Virtual Assistant: Which Fits a UK Clinic? URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-vs-virtual-assistant-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-12. Last reviewed: 2026-06-12. A virtual assistant is a remote human who works your admin by the hour — UK rates typically run £25–£35/hour freelance and £30–£40/hour through agencies. An AI receptionist is software that answers every inbound call 24/7 and books patients into your diary in the same call. They're not really rivals: VAs are strongest on varied, judgement-heavy admin; AI receptionists on volume phone coverage no human schedule can match. The mistake is paying human hourly rates for the part of the job that's answering a ringing phone. Key takeaways: - UK virtual assistants typically charge £25–£35/hour freelance and £30–£40/hour via agencies (2026 published rates) - A VA answers one call at a time, during agreed hours — holidays, sickness and evenings stay uncovered - AI receptionists answer simultaneous calls 24/7 and complete bookings in your PMS during the call - VAs win on judgement-heavy, varied admin: insurer chasing, inbox triage, supplier wrangling, ad-hoc projects - Many clinics run both: AI takes the phones, the VA (or in-house team) takes the work that genuinely needs a human ### AI receptionist vs virtual assistant at a glance | | AI receptionist | Virtual assistant | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Software answering your clinic's calls | A remote human working agreed hours | | Availability | 24/7, including evenings, weekends, bank holidays | Contracted hours; off sick and on holiday like anyone | | Parallel calls | Answers simultaneous callers | One call at a time | | Booking | Books into Cliniko, Nookal and other PMSs in-call | Can book if trained on your system, during their hours | | Beyond the phone | Phones, messages, call summaries | Almost anything: inboxes, insurers, invoicing, projects | | Cost model | Usage-based plans (credits at Motics) | £25–£35/hr freelance; £30–£40/hr agency | | Consistency | Same behaviour on every call, every time | Depends on the individual — and on handover quality | | Set-up | Live in an afternoon for most clinics | Recruitment, onboarding and training over weeks | ### Different tools for different halves of the job Clinic admin splits into two kinds of work. One kind is reactive and time-critical: the phone rings, and either someone answers in the next twenty seconds or the moment is gone. The other kind is queued and judgement-heavy: chasing an insurer about a rejected claim, sorting a supplier invoice, triaging an inbox. Virtual assistants are genuinely good at the second kind — it's what the role evolved for. The first kind is where the hourly-rate model breaks: you can't schedule a human, at £30/hour, to be permanently available for calls that arrive unpredictably across twelve hours a day. Practice owners who've tried covering phones with a VA tell us the same two things: the VA can only take one call at once, and a remote generalist rarely knows the business well enough to answer the questions patients actually ask — fees, practitioners, what a first appointment involves. Neither is the VA's fault. It's a coverage problem being asked of a person. ### What the numbers look like Published UK rates for 2026 put freelance virtual assistants at roughly £25–£35/hour, with agencies at £30–£40/hour. Cover your phones for just four hours a day, five days a week, and you're at £2,200–£3,500 a month for one-call-at-a-time daytime coverage — with evenings, weekends and the VA's own holidays still dark. An AI receptionist covers all of it, simultaneously, on usage-based pricing that for most clinics lands well under a tenth of that. Published category pricing is collected in our [AI receptionist cost guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-cost-uk/); what missed coverage is costing you today is a three-input sum in the [missed-call calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/). ### Where the VA genuinely wins - Varied admin: insurer and claims chasing, inbox management, document prep, ad-hoc projects — work that changes shape week to week. - Judgement calls: a good VA learns your preferences and makes decisions software shouldn't. - Relationship continuity: the same person handling your admin builds context an AI doesn't try to replicate. - Flexible scope: you can hand a VA anything; an AI receptionist does phones and messages, deliberately. ### The combination most clinics land on This isn't actually an either/or. The pattern that works: an AI receptionist takes first answer on every call — so nothing rings out, ever — books the routine appointments, and passes summaries and edge cases to a human. That human is sometimes a VA, more often your existing front desk, who suddenly has hours back for the work that needs them. You stop paying human rates for phone coverage, and the humans stop being interrupted by it. Rule of thumb: if the task is "be available the instant the phone rings, at any hour", that's software. If the task is "use judgement on something unusual", that's a person. Price each accordingly. ### How we chose VA rate ranges verified on 12 June 2026 against published UK sources: PayScale (UK virtual assistant hourly rates), AC Virtual Assistant's 2026 UK cost guide (£35–£50/hour for specialists, ~£30/hour average and rising), and Team Build Consultancy's 2026 comparison (freelance £25–£35/hour, agency £30–£40/hour). Worked monthly figures are arithmetic on those ranges, not quotes. Conflict of interest: Motics builds an AI receptionist, so we benefit if you choose software for phone coverage. The cases where a human VA is the better answer are listed because they're true — and clinics that buy the wrong category churn, which helps nobody. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does a virtual assistant cost in the UK? Published 2026 rates put freelance UK virtual assistants at roughly £25–£35 per hour and agency VAs at £30–£40 per hour, with specialists higher. Most work on retainers of a fixed number of hours per month, so the real question is how many hours your admin actually needs — and which of those hours are really just phone coverage. ### Can a virtual assistant answer my clinic's phones? Yes, during their contracted hours, one call at a time — and a good medical VA can do it well. The structural limits are coverage (evenings, weekends, their holidays and sickness) and concurrency (a second simultaneous caller gets the engaged tone). Those limits are why phone coverage specifically suits software better than hourly humans. ### Will an AI receptionist replace my virtual assistant? No — they do different jobs. An AI receptionist removes the reactive phone load: answering, booking, message-taking, 24/7. A VA's value is in queued, judgement-heavy admin. Clinics that run both typically narrow the VA's brief to the human work and let the AI hold the phones. ### Does an AI receptionist work with my practice management system? Motics books directly into systems including Cliniko and Nookal, with availability checked live during the call. If you run a system without a direct integration, calls are still answered and summarised, with bookings passed to your team — ask any vendor exactly which PMSs they write into before you buy. ### Sources - [PayScale — Virtual Assistant hourly pay, UK (2026)](https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Virtual_Assistant/Hourly_Rate) - [AC Virtual Assistant — How much does a virtual assistant cost in the UK? (2026 guide)](https://www.acvirtualassistant.co.uk/post/how-much-does-a-virtual-assistant-cost-in-the-uk-2026-guide) - [Team Build Consultancy — Virtual assistant costs in 2026 (UK)](https://teambuildconsultancy.co.uk/how-much-does-a-virtual-assistant-cost/) - [Motics — Missed call cost calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) ## AI Receptionist vs Hiring a Receptionist: The Real Maths for UK Clinics URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-vs-hiring-receptionist-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-06-12. Last reviewed: 2026-06-12. A UK medical receptionist averages £22,500–£24,000 a year in salary (Indeed and Glassdoor, 2026), roughly £26,000–£28,500 once employer National Insurance, pension and holiday cover are added — for one person, answering one call at a time, around 37 hours a week. An AI receptionist answers every call simultaneously, 24/7, for a small fraction of that. The honest conclusion isn't "don't hire": it's that hiring solves an in-clinic presence problem, while most clinics' phone problem is a coverage problem — and coverage is what software is for. Key takeaways: - UK medical receptionist salaries average £22,572–£23,986 (Indeed/Glassdoor 2026); NHS roles average ~£24,332 - Employer on-costs (NI, pension, holiday and sickness cover) take the true annual cost to roughly £26,000–£28,500 - One receptionist covers ~37 hours of the ~80+ hours a week patients actually call — and one call at a time - Front-desk humans do things AI shouldn't: in-person welcome, payments, chaperoning, complex triage, the feel of your clinic - The highest-ROI move for most clinics is coverage, not headcount: AI takes first answer and out-of-hours, your team keeps the human work ### Hiring vs AI receptionist at a glance | | Hiring a receptionist | AI receptionist | | --- | --- | --- | | Annual cost | £26,000–£28,500 true cost (salary + on-costs) | A small fraction — usage-based monthly plans | | Hours covered | ~37 hrs/week, minus breaks, holiday, sickness | 168 hrs/week — every call, any hour | | Simultaneous calls | One at a time | Unlimited in practice — no engaged tone | | In-clinic presence | Yes — greeting, payments, chaperoning, the human face of the clinic | No — phones, bookings and messages only | | Booking | Into your PMS, when free to answer | Into your PMS (Cliniko, Nookal and others), in-call, 24/7 | | Recruitment lead time | Weeks to months, plus training | Live in an afternoon for most clinics | | Resilience | Holidays, sickness, turnover create gaps | Same behaviour every call; no rota | | Judgement & empathy | High — irreplaceable for complex situations | Handles routine well; transfers the rest to humans | ### Start with the actual problem: presence or coverage? Clinics usually reach this comparison after a symptom: missed calls, overwhelmed front desk, patients complaining nobody picks up. Before pricing anything, name which problem you have. A presence problem — nobody to greet patients, take payments, manage the room — is solved by a person, and only a person. A coverage problem — calls ringing out at peak, lunch, evenings, weekends — is a maths problem: patients call across 80+ hours a week, a full-time human covers ~37 of them, one call at a time. Hiring a second receptionist to fix coverage buys you a few more answered hours at £26,000+ a year, and the 6pm caller still gets voicemail. ### The true cost of hiring Published 2026 figures put the average UK medical receptionist at £22,572 a year (Indeed) to £23,986 (Glassdoor), with NHS roles averaging around £24,332. Salary is not the cost: add employer National Insurance, pension auto-enrolment, holiday and sickness cover, and the realistic annual figure for one full-time receptionist is roughly £26,000–£28,500 — before recruitment fees, training time, and the management overhead of a rota. None of that is an argument against the role. It's the baseline any alternative should be honestly compared to. ### What only the human does - The room: greeting patients, payments, juggling the waiting area when clinic runs late. - Complex and sensitive calls: a distressed patient, a safeguarding concern, a complaint that needs a person who can own it. - Institutional knowledge: knowing that Mrs Patel always needs the ground-floor room — the texture of a clinic that software shouldn't pretend to have. - Being the face of the practice: for many clinics the receptionist is the brand. That's worth protecting, not automating. ### The maths most clinics actually face The choice is rarely "receptionist or AI". It's: you already employ your front desk, calls are still being missed, and the question is whether the next £25,000+ goes on a second hire or whether software takes the overflow. Run the revenue side first: at typical UK clinic missed-call rates of 15–25%, unbooked appointments usually cost multiples of either option — the [missed-call calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) gives you your own figure in under a minute, and published AI receptionist pricing is collected in our [cost guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-cost-uk/). For most clinics the comparison lands the same way: the human you have becomes more valuable when the phone stops interrupting them, and the coverage gap closes for less than a tenth of a salary. When hiring is still the right call: growing clinics that need a second person physically present — more rooms, more walk-ins, more payments — should hire, and use AI for phones around them. If your front desk is empty, no amount of software fills a doorway. ### How we chose Salary figures verified on 12 June 2026 from published UK sources: Indeed (average medical receptionist salary £22,572/year, ~2.3k reported salaries), Glassdoor (£23,986/year for medical office receptionists), and Indeed's NHS employer page (~£24,332/year). True-cost ranges add typical employer on-costs (National Insurance above the secondary threshold, pension auto-enrolment, paid leave cover) at commonly used planning rates of roughly 15–20% — your accountant's figure for your circumstances should replace ours. Conflict of interest: Motics builds an AI receptionist, so we have a commercial interest here. We've been explicit about the work only a human can do because that's both true and, in our experience, what makes deployments succeed: clinics that try to automate the front desk's human work regret it; clinics that automate coverage free their humans to do more of it. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does a medical receptionist cost in the UK? Published 2026 averages are £22,572/year (Indeed) to £23,986/year (Glassdoor), with NHS roles around £24,332. With employer National Insurance, pension contributions and holiday/sickness cover, plan on a true cost of roughly £26,000–£28,500 a year for a full-time hire, before recruitment and training. ### Can an AI receptionist replace my receptionist? It replaces a slice of the job — answering, booking and message-taking — and does that slice with more coverage than any human rota. It doesn't greet patients, take payments in person, or hold a difficult conversation the way a person can. The clinics that get this right use AI to take the phones and give their front-desk team the time back for the human work. ### Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring? For phone coverage, substantially — usage-based plans for UK clinics run at a small fraction of the £26,000+ true annual cost of a hire, and they cover evenings, weekends and simultaneous calls a single person can't. For in-clinic presence, the comparison doesn't apply: that's a job only a person does. ### What happens to calls the AI can't handle? They transfer to your team with context — who's calling, what they need — rather than going to voicemail. Distressed callers, complex queries and anything matching your escalation rules go to a human; the routine bookings and questions never reach you at all. You define where that line sits. ### Sources - [Indeed — Medical receptionist salaries, United Kingdom](https://uk.indeed.com/career/medical-receptionist/salaries) - [Glassdoor — Medical office receptionist salary, UK](https://glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/medical-office-receptionist-salary-SRCH_KO0,27.htm) - [Indeed — NHS medical receptionist salaries](https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Nhs-1/salaries/Medical-Receptionist) - [Motics — Missed call cost calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) ## Motics vs Tandem Health (2026): AI Scribe Comparison for UK Clinics URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-tandem-health/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Tandem Health is a Swedish AI scribe with a free tier, Pro at £59 per user a month billed yearly, Class IIa CE marking and EMIS, SystmOne and Semble integrations, with data stored in European data centres. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite with a physio-first scribe and credit pricing from £19 a month. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase and keeps patient data in the UK. Key takeaways: - Tandem prices per seat: free tier, then Pro at £59 per user a month billed yearly or £69 monthly. Motics prices by credits: Free, Starter £19 a month, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users. - Integrations decide most UK private-clinic comparisons: Tandem lists EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble and Accurx but not Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase; Motics files into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. - Tandem stores data exclusively in European data centres; Motics stores data in the UK. - Tandem holds Class IIa CE marking under EU MDR, ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and Cyber Essentials Plus. Motics' Scribe Agent is an MHRA-registered Class I medical device, with Cyber Essentials Plus and security aligned to ISO 27001. - Tandem's technology also powers Accurx Scribe in NHS general practice. Motics adds an AI receptionist, email, billing and documentation audit on the same credit pool as the scribe. ### Motics vs Tandem Health at a glance | | Motics | Tandem Health | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Clinic AI suite: Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit agents | AI medical scribe with coding and decision-support tools | | Published GBP pricing | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits); Scale from £290 (2,640 shared credits). Ex VAT | Free; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly or £69 monthly; Enterprise tailored. VAT not published | | Pricing model | Credits (about 1 per note) in a shared pool, unlimited users on clinic plans | Per seat | | Free option | Free plan, 25 credits a month | Free plan with unlimited note generation, 2 custom templates, 2 co-workers | | UK integrations | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx, iaptus (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase not listed) | | Where data is stored | UK | Exclusively in European data centres | | Medical device status | MHRA-registered Class I (UK MDR) | CE-marked Class IIa under EU MDR | | Security certifications | Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC-assessed; DCB0129; security aligned to ISO 27001 | ISO 27001, ISO 13485, Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT | | Beyond the scribe | AI receptionist, email, billing, documentation audit | Coding assistant, clinical decision support, dictation | ### Two scribes built for different settings Tandem grew up in European and NHS settings: it integrates with EMIS Web and SystmOne, powers Accurx Scribe for GP practices, and carries Class IIa CE marking. It also sells a self-serve Pro plan in GBP, so a UK private clinician can sign up directly. Motics is built for UK private and allied-health clinics: physio-first templates, notes filed into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and an AI receptionist, email, billing and audit on the same plan. ### How the pricing compares Tandem's free tier has no note cap but allows two custom templates and two co-workers; Pro is £59 per user a month billed yearly. Motics' Free plan is limited by credits (25 a month, around one note a day), Starter is £19 a month for around five notes a day, and Team is from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with one shared pool and unlimited users. A solo clinician can start on Motics Starter for £19 a month, and for a clinic with part-time associates a shared pool usually costs less than a seat for everyone. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics stores patient data in the UK, where Tandem uses European data centres, and it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, which Tandem doesn't list. One shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale, so part-time associates don't each need a seat. For UK private clinics that makes Motics the stronger fit: start on the free plan, or estimate your monthly cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics on Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase that want UK-hosted, physio-first notes and other admin agents on one plan Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT; 15% off annually. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, with physio-first templates covering objective measures and exercise prescription, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review. The same credit pool runs the Phone Agent (AI receptionist), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Patient data stays in the UK, audio is deleted within 48 hours, the Scribe Agent is MHRA-registered as a Class I medical device, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - Credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans, so part-time associates don't need full seats - Same pool covers AI receptionist, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - UK data residency, audio deleted within 48 hours, MHRA Class I, DTAC-assessed Limitations: - No EMIS or SystmOne integration, so it isn't built for NHS GP practices - Three PMS integrations today; TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and Jane need copy-paste - No in-consult clinical evidence or coding assistant ### 2. Tandem Health Best for: Clinicians in NHS and European settings, including EMIS, SystmOne and Semble users, looking for a Class IIa CE-marked scribe with a free tier Pricing: Free tier; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly or £69 monthly; Enterprise tailored. VAT not published. Read from tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Tandem Health is a Swedish AI medical scribe (Tandem Health AB) with solution pages for medicine, mental health, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry, pharmacy and social services. The free plan includes unlimited note generation, up to two custom templates and up to two co-workers; Pro adds more templates and Pro Actions. It also offers a coding assistant, clinical decision support and dictation, and it powers Accurx Scribe for NHS practices. Its listed certifications are ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, NHS DSPT, and CE marking as a Class IIa medical device under EU MDR. Data is processed and stored exclusively in European data centres rather than in the UK. UK integrations listed include EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus; Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Jane and WriteUpp aren't listed. Strengths: - Free tier with unlimited note generation - Class IIa CE marking under EU MDR; ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and Cyber Essentials Plus - EMIS Web, SystmOne and Semble integrations - Coding assistant and clinical decision support Limitations: - Data stored in European data centres; UK hosting not published - No Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3 or WriteUpp integration listed - Per-seat Pro pricing (£59 to £69 per user a month) - VAT treatment not published ### How we chose Every fact about Tandem Health on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does Tandem Health cost in the UK? Tandem's pricing page shows a free plan, Pro at £59 per user a month billed yearly or £69 billed monthly, and a tailored Enterprise plan. It doesn't say whether VAT is included. Checked 10 October 2026. ### Is Motics cheaper than Tandem? The two price differently. Tandem Pro is £59 per user a month billed yearly or £69 monthly, and its free tier offers unlimited note generation with up to two custom templates and two co-workers. Motics Starter is £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team is from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one credit pool, all ex VAT. Clinics with part-time associates usually pay less on a shared pool than on a seat per person; estimate your own cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Does Tandem integrate with Cliniko? Tandem's integrations page doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Jane or WriteUpp. It lists EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus among UK systems. Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. ### Where does Tandem store UK patient data? Tandem says data is processed and stored exclusively in European data centres. Motics stores patient data in the UK. Data in the EU can be used lawfully under UK GDPR adequacy arrangements, but record the location in your DPIA. ### Is Tandem a medical device? Yes. Tandem says its products are certified under EU MDR as Class IIa medical devices and are CE marked. Motics' Scribe Agent is registered with the MHRA as a Class I medical device under UK MDR. ### What's the connection between Tandem and Accurx Scribe? Accurx Scribe is powered by Tandem's technology, according to Tandem's own news page. Accurx sells it to NHS practices priced per registered patient; Tandem sells its own plans per user. ### Which is better for physiotherapists, Motics or Tandem? For private physio, Motics. Its templates are physio-first (SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters) and it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, the systems many UK private physio clinics use. Tandem has a physiotherapy solution page; the UK integrations it lists are EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus. ### Sources - [Tandem Health — pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing) - [Tandem Health — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/integrations) - [Tandem Health — data security and certifications (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/data-security) - [Tandem Health — news: Tandem and Accurx partnership (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/resources/news/tandem-has-teamed-up-with-accurx-to-deliver-our-ai-medical-scribe-to-200-000-nhs-staff) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Scribe Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/) - [Motics — security and data protection (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/security/) ## Motics vs Lyrebird Health (2026): AI Scribe Comparison for UK Clinics URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-lyrebird-health/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Lyrebird Health is an AI scribe for UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists, with UK data storage, MHRA Class I registration and a Pro plan listed at £50 per user a month on its UK pricing page and £59 in its help centre. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite from £19 a month. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: it files physio-first notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and one credit pool covers phones, email and billing. Key takeaways: - Lyrebird's own pages disagree on price: the UK pricing page says Pro is £50 per user a month or £450 a year; its help centre (articles dated August and September 2026) says £59 a month or £480 a year. Confirm at checkout. - Lyrebird's UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) plus Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech, and no UK private-practice PMS. Motics files into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. - Both store patient data in the UK and both scribes are registered with the MHRA as Class I medical devices. - Lyrebird offers part-time discounts of up to 50%; Motics avoids seats altogether with a shared credit pool and unlimited users on clinic plans. - Motics adds an AI receptionist, email, billing and documentation audit on the same plan. ### Motics vs Lyrebird Health at a glance | | Motics | Lyrebird Health | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Clinic AI suite: Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit agents | AI scribe with letters, document sorting and practice management | | Published GBP pricing | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits); Scale from £290 (2,640 shared credits). Ex VAT | Free (50 actions/month); Pro £50/user/month or £450/year (UK pricing page) or £59/month or £480/year (help centre). VAT not published | | Pricing model | Credits (about 1 per note), shared pool, unlimited users on clinic plans | Per seat, with part-time discounts up to 50% | | UK integrations | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | None listed for UK PMS or GP systems (lists Best Practice, Gentu, Epic, Oracle Health, Meditech) | | Where data is stored | UK | UK, with model inference running transiently in the EU | | Medical device status | MHRA-registered Class I | MHRA-registered Class I | | Security certifications | Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC-assessed; DCB0129; security aligned to ISO 27001 | Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC (internal assessment); DSPT; ISO 27001 not published | | Target market | UK private and allied-health clinics | UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists | | Beyond the scribe | AI receptionist, email, billing, documentation audit | Documents and letters, document sorter, practice management | ### What Lyrebird costs On 10 October 2026 Lyrebird's UK pricing page listed Pro at £50 per user a month billed monthly, or £450 per user a year billed annually. Two of its help-centre articles, dated 10 August and 10 September 2026, list Pro at £59 a month or £480 a year (equivalent to £40 a month). The free plan is called Free on the site and Lite in the help centre, with 50 actions a month and no integrations. We can't tell which price is current, so check the figure at checkout. Motics plans are Free, Starter £19 a month, Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) and Scale from £290 a month (2,640 shared credits), all ex VAT. ### Integrations: the practical difference Lyrebird's UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu, both Australian practice systems, plus hospital EHRs (Epic, Oracle Health, Meditech). It doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS or SystmOne, so UK private clinicians will usually copy notes into their PMS. Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase after clinician review. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Both products store data in the UK and both scribes are MHRA Class I, so the difference is what happens after the note. Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, which Lyrebird doesn't list, and one shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing with unlimited users on Team and Scale, so part-time associates don't need a seat. Start on the free plan, or estimate your clinic's cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics on Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase that want notes filed automatically and other admin agents on one plan Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT; 15% off annually. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, with physio-first templates covering objective measures and exercise prescription, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review. The same credit pool runs the Phone Agent (AI receptionist), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Patient data stays in the UK, audio is deleted within 48 hours, the Scribe Agent is MHRA-registered as a Class I medical device, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - Credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans, so part-time associates don't need full seats - Same pool covers AI receptionist, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - UK data residency, audio deleted within 48 hours, MHRA Class I, DTAC-assessed Limitations: - No EMIS or SystmOne integration, so it isn't built for NHS GP practices - Three PMS integrations today; TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and Jane need copy-paste - No in-consult clinical evidence or coding assistant ### 2. Lyrebird Health Best for: UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists wanting a UK-hosted scribe for notes and letters Pricing: Free (50 actions/month, no integrations); Pro £50 per user/month or £450/year on the UK pricing page, but £59/month or £480/year in its help centre. VAT not published. Read 10 Oct 2026. Lyrebird Health is an Australian-founded AI scribe whose UK site says it is built for UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists. Beyond notes it offers documents and letters, a document sorter and practice management features. Part-time clinicians can get discounts of up to 50% at checkout, and registrars a larger discount on Pro. Its UK compliance page says data is stored in the United Kingdom (with model inference running transiently in the EU), that it is registered with the MHRA as a Class I medical device, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certified, DTAC compliant on an internal assessment and compliant with DSPT, and that data is never used to train an AI model. Its UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) plus Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech; it doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, EMIS or SystmOne. Strengths: - UK data storage and MHRA Class I registration - Cyber Essentials Plus certified - Free plan with 50 actions a month - Part-time discounts of up to 50% on Pro Limitations: - Its own pages give two different Pro prices (£50 vs £59 a month; £450 vs £480 a year) - No UK private-practice PMS or GP system integration listed - ISO 27001 not published - UK pages carry Australian features and terminology ### How we chose Every fact about Lyrebird Health on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does Lyrebird Health cost in the UK? It depends which Lyrebird page you read. The UK pricing page lists Pro at £50 per user a month or £450 a year; its help centre lists £59 a month or £480 a year. There's also a free plan with 50 actions a month and no integrations, and Teams and Enterprise are custom. VAT isn't stated. Checked 10 October 2026, so confirm the price at checkout. ### Is Motics cheaper than Lyrebird? The two price differently. Lyrebird Pro is £50 to £59 per user a month depending on which of its pages you read, with part-time discounts of up to 50%. Motics Starter is £19 a month for a solo clinician and Team is from £98 a month (704 shared credits) ex VAT, with unlimited users sharing one credit pool, so part-time associates don't need a seat at all. Estimate your clinic's cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Does Lyrebird integrate with Cliniko or EMIS? Lyrebird's UK integrations page doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS or SystmOne. It lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) and Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech. Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. ### Where does Lyrebird store UK data? Lyrebird's UK compliance page says data is stored in the United Kingdom and that model inference runs transiently in the EU. It says data is never used to train an AI model. Motics also stores data in the UK, deletes audio within 48 hours and doesn't train on patient data. ### Are Motics and Lyrebird medical devices? Both say their scribes are registered with the MHRA as Class I medical devices. Motics' Scribe Agent is also DTAC-assessed, has DCB0129 clinical safety documentation and Cyber Essentials Plus, and its security is aligned to ISO 27001. ### Is Lyrebird built for physiotherapists? Lyrebird's UK site positions it for NHS trusts, GPs and specialists and doesn't name allied health as a UK audience. Physios can use it for notes, but expect to copy them into Cliniko or Nookal. Motics' templates are physio-first and file directly. ### Can I switch from Lyrebird to Motics? Yes. Your clinical record lives in your PMS, so switching mainly means recreating templates and connecting Motics to Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase. Export any letters or documents stored only in Lyrebird before you cancel, and run both side by side for a week if you can. ### Sources - [Lyrebird Health — UK pricing page (£50/month, £450/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — Pricing, how do I pay? (£59/month, £480/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/10066768-pricing-how-do-i-pay) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — plan comparison (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/15884012-plan-comparison-which-plan-is-right-for-you) - [Lyrebird Health — UK compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/uk-compliance) - [Lyrebird Health — UK integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/integrations) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Scribe Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/) - [Motics — security and data protection (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/security/) ## Tandem Health Alternatives in the UK (2026): 5 AI Scribes Compared URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/tandem-health-alternatives-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. The main Tandem Health alternatives in the UK are Motics (our product), Heidi (multi-specialty, per seat), Lyrebird (specialists and NHS), Accurx Scribe (Tandem technology for GP practices) and TORTUS (NHS trusts). For UK private clinics, Motics is the strongest alternative because it keeps patient data in the UK, files physio-first notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and prices by shared credits from £19 a month rather than per seat. Key takeaways: - Common reasons to look beyond Tandem: European rather than UK data hosting, no Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase integration, and per-seat Pro pricing (£59 to £69 per user a month). - UK private clinics: Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, stores data in the UK and prices by shared credits with unlimited users on Team and Scale. - NHS GP practices already get Tandem's technology through Accurx Scribe, priced per registered patient. - TORTUS states UKCA Class IIa and sells to NHS trusts through G-Cloud; it has no self-serve plan for small clinics. - Motics also runs an AI receptionist, email, billing and documentation audit from the same credit pool as the scribe. ### Tandem Health alternatives compared | Alternative | Main focus | Published GBP pricing | UK integrations | UK data and compliance | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Physio-first notes filed into private PMS, plus phones and admin on one plan | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits; ex VAT) | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK hosting; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus; ISO 27001-aligned | | Heidi Health | Multi-specialty scribe with a free tier and UK private PMS integrations | Free; Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55, Practice £65 per user/month billed annually | Cliniko (Practice/Enterprise), Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS | UK hosting; ISO 27001; Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC | | Lyrebird Health | UK-hosted scribe for specialists and NHS clinicians | Free; Pro £50/user/month (UK pricing page) or £59 (help centre) | No UK PMS or GP system listed | UK storage; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus | | Accurx Scribe | Tandem technology priced by GP list size | From £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year | EMIS, SystmOne | London Azure hosting; ISO 27001 (company) | | TORTUS | UKCA Class IIa scribe for NHS trusts | G-Cloud only: small pilot £44 per licence/month | Epic, EMIS, SystmOne, X-on | UK and EEA hosting; ISO 27001; UKCA Class IIa | | Tandem Health (for reference) | Free tier with unlimited notes; Class IIa | Free; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly (£69 monthly) | EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx | European data centres; ISO 27001; Class IIa (EU MDR) | ### What Tandem Health is Tandem is a Swedish AI scribe. Its free plan includes unlimited note generation, its products are CE-marked Class IIa medical devices under EU MDR, and it holds ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and Cyber Essentials Plus. It integrates with EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble and Accurx, and its technology powers Accurx Scribe in NHS general practice. ### Three reasons UK clinicians look elsewhere - Data location. Tandem says data is processed and stored exclusively in European data centres. Some UK clinics and procurement teams prefer UK hosting. - Private-practice integrations. Tandem's integrations page doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Jane or WriteUpp, the systems many UK private and allied-health clinics run. - Per-seat pricing. Pro is £59 per user a month billed yearly or £69 monthly. Clinics with part-time associates pay for a seat per person. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics is built for UK private and allied-health clinics: UK data residency, notes filed into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and no per-seat fees, with unlimited users on Team and Scale. One shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, and the free plan lets you test it on real consultations first. Estimate your clinic's monthly cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics leaving Tandem for UK hosting and Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase filing Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT; 15% off annually. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, with physio-first templates covering objective measures and exercise prescription, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review. The same credit pool runs the Phone Agent (AI receptionist), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Patient data stays in the UK, audio is deleted within 48 hours, the Scribe Agent is MHRA-registered as a Class I medical device, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - Credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans, so part-time associates don't need full seats - Same pool covers AI receptionist, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - UK data residency, audio deleted within 48 hours, MHRA Class I, DTAC-assessed Limitations: - No EMIS or SystmOne integration, so it isn't built for NHS GP practices - Three PMS integrations today; TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and Jane need copy-paste - No in-consult clinical evidence or coding assistant ### 2. Heidi Health Best for: Multi-specialty clinicians wanting a per-seat scribe with a free tier, UK private PMS integrations and NHS-facing compliance documentation Pricing: Free £0; Scribe Plus £45 and Clinician £55 per user/month billed annually (£60 and £70 monthly per the page's price data); Practice £65 per user/month billed annually; Enterprise custom. Excludes sales tax. Read from heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Heidi is a multi-specialty AI scribe with a free tier, 14-day trials of paid plans and extras including clinical evidence, coding and dictation. Its UK integrations page lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and EMIS among others; its Cliniko page says that integration is available on the Practice and Enterprise plans. Its UK compliance page lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 and DCB0160 safety documentation, DSPT, UK-hosted data, no audio recordings stored, and no training on patient or customer data. Strengths: - Free tier and 14-day trials of paid plans - Lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble and WriteUpp integrations - UK-hosted data, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 - Evidence and coding features alongside the scribe Limitations: - Per-seat pricing; Cliniko integration needs the £65 Practice plan or Enterprise - Multi-specialty defaults may need template work for physio output - Scribe only: phones, billing and audit need other tools ### 3. Lyrebird Health Best for: UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists wanting a UK-hosted scribe for notes and letters Pricing: Free (50 actions/month, no integrations); Pro £50 per user/month or £450/year on the UK pricing page, but £59/month or £480/year in its help centre. VAT not published. Read 10 Oct 2026. Lyrebird Health is an Australian-founded AI scribe whose UK site says it is built for UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists. Beyond notes it offers documents and letters, a document sorter and practice management features. Part-time clinicians can get discounts of up to 50% at checkout, and registrars a larger discount on Pro. Its UK compliance page says data is stored in the United Kingdom (with model inference running transiently in the EU), that it is registered with the MHRA as a Class I medical device, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certified, DTAC compliant on an internal assessment and compliant with DSPT, and that data is never used to train an AI model. Its UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) plus Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech; it doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, EMIS or SystmOne. Strengths: - UK data storage and MHRA Class I registration - Cyber Essentials Plus certified - Free plan with 50 actions a month - Part-time discounts of up to 50% on Pro Limitations: - Its own pages give two different Pro prices (£50 vs £59 a month; £450 vs £480 a year) - No UK private-practice PMS or GP system integration listed - ISO 27001 not published - UK pages carry Australian features and terminology ### 4. Accurx Scribe Best for: NHS GP practices on Accurx, EMIS or SystmOne, priced by registered list size Pricing: From 40p per registered patient per year: £0.50 (1–14,999 patients), £0.47, £0.43, £0.40 (800,000+). Unlimited scribes. VAT not published. Read from accurx.com/scribe-pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Accurx Scribe is Accurx's ambient scribe for general practice and secondary care, built on Tandem's technology. It saves notes to EMIS and SystmOne with one click and is priced per registered patient per year with unlimited scribes, so a practice pays by list size rather than by clinician. Accurx's company security page says it holds ISO 27001 certification, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, is DSPT assured, and hosts servers in Microsoft Azure's London data centre. These are company-wide statements rather than Scribe-specific ones. Accurx doesn't describe a route for private clinics without a registered patient list. Strengths: - List-size pricing with unlimited scribes - One-click save to EMIS and SystmOne - London-hosted servers; ISO 27001 and DSPT at company level - Available to practices already using Accurx Limitations: - Priced per registered patient, which doesn't fit private clinics - No private-practice PMS integration listed - VAT, trial and minimum term not published ### 5. TORTUS Best for: NHS trusts, and GP practices on X-on, buying through G-Cloud Pricing: Website publishes no price. G-Cloud 15 (ex VAT): small-scale pilot £44 per licence/month (up to 20 licences); 3-month pilots £5,000 to £30,000; NHS trust enterprise £200,000/year for up to 100,000 audio hours. Read 10 Oct 2026. TORTUS is a UK ambient voice technology company that sells to NHS trusts directly and to GP practices through X-on Surgery Connect. It integrates with Epic, EMIS, SystmOne, Oracle Health, Rio, Medicus and X-on, and offers an SDK for private and NHS organisations, but no self-serve plan for small clinics. It describes itself as the first ambient voice technology certified as a UKCA Class IIa medical device, and lists ISO 27001 (LRQA), ISO 13485, Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC and DSPT, with zero patient audio retained at rest. Its G-Cloud listing gives hosting as the UK and EEA. Strengths: - UKCA Class IIa medical device - ISO 27001, ISO 13485, Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC - Integrates with Epic, EMIS, SystmOne and X-on Limitations: - No self-serve or small-clinic plan; no private PMS integration - Pricing only in G-Cloud documents, whose validity dates conflict ### How we chose Every fact about Tandem Health, Heidi, Lyrebird, Accurx and TORTUS on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is the best Tandem Health alternative in the UK? For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics. It stores patient data in the UK, files physio-first notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and is priced by a shared credit pool from £19 a month, with unlimited users on Team and Scale. Accurx Scribe uses Tandem's technology and is sold to NHS GP practices per registered patient; TORTUS sells to NHS trusts through G-Cloud. ### Is there a free alternative to Tandem? Motics has a free plan with 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat (around one note a day), no card required, and Starter at £19 a month when you need more. Heidi has a free tier and Lyrebird a free plan with 50 actions a month. Tandem's own free plan includes unlimited note generation with up to two custom templates and two co-workers. ### Which Tandem alternatives integrate with Cliniko? Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. Heidi lists Cliniko, but its Cliniko page says the integration is on the Practice (£65 per user a month billed annually) and Enterprise plans. Lyrebird, Accurx Scribe and TORTUS don't list Cliniko. ### Which AI scribes store data in the UK? On their own pages: Motics (UK data residency), Heidi (locally hosted within the UK), Lyrebird (stored in the UK, with transient EU inference) and Accurx (London Azure data centre; UK or EU per its residency statement). TORTUS gives UK and EEA hosting on G-Cloud. Tandem says European data centres. ### Is Accurx Scribe the same as Tandem? Accurx Scribe is powered by Tandem's technology, per Tandem's own news page, but it's sold by Accurx to NHS practices at £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year and saves to EMIS and SystmOne. Private clinics can't buy it on that basis. ### Which alternatives are medical devices? On their own sites: Motics, Lyrebird and Anima say MHRA Class I; TORTUS says UKCA Class IIa; Tandem (which you'd be leaving) says Class IIa under EU MDR. Heidi's UK compliance page doesn't state a medical device class. ### When does switching from Tandem make sense? Switching makes sense if your clinic runs Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, UK data hosting is a requirement, or per-seat pricing doesn't suit a team with part-time associates. Motics covers all three: it files notes directly, keeps data in the UK and shares one credit pool across unlimited users on Team and Scale. Tandem's listed UK integrations are EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus, and it holds Class IIa CE marking. ### Sources - [Tandem Health — pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing) - [Tandem Health — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/integrations) - [Tandem Health — data security and certifications (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/data-security) - [Tandem Health — news: Tandem and Accurx partnership (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/resources/news/tandem-has-teamed-up-with-accurx-to-deliver-our-ai-medical-scribe-to-200-000-nhs-staff) - [Heidi — UK pricing (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/integrations) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration (plan availability) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/integrations/cliniko) - [Heidi — UK compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Lyrebird Health — UK pricing page (£50/month, £450/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — Pricing, how do I pay? (£59/month, £480/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/10066768-pricing-how-do-i-pay) - [Lyrebird Health — UK compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/uk-compliance) - [Lyrebird Health — UK integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/integrations) - [Accurx — Scribe pricing (per patient, per year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/scribe-pricing) - [Accurx — security for healthcare professionals (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/security-for-healthcare-professionals) - [TORTUS — home page (market, integrations, compliance) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tortus.ai/) - [TORTUS — G-Cloud 15 pricing document (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://assets.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-15/documents/722631/844300766833856-pricing-document-2026-01-07-1444.pdf) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Scribe Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/) ## Lyrebird Health Alternatives in the UK (2026): 5 AI Scribes Compared URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/lyrebird-alternatives-uk/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. The main Lyrebird Health alternatives in the UK are Motics (our product), Heidi, Tandem, and for NHS GP practices Accurx Scribe and Anima. Most people look elsewhere because Lyrebird lists no UK PMS integration. For UK private clinics, Motics is the strongest alternative because it files physio-first notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, keeps data in the UK and prices by shared credits from £19 a month. Key takeaways: - Lyrebird's UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) plus Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech, and no UK private-practice PMS or GP system. - Lyrebird's own pages give two Pro prices: £50 per user a month on its UK pricing page and £59 in its help centre. Motics publishes one price per plan. - UK private clinics: Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, with one shared credit pool and unlimited users on Team and Scale. - NHS GP practices: Accurx Scribe and Anima both integrate with EMIS and SystmOne. - Lyrebird stores data in the UK and is MHRA Class I registered. Motics does both and adds direct PMS filing, an AI receptionist, email and billing. ### Lyrebird Health alternatives compared | Alternative | Main focus | Published GBP pricing | UK integrations | UK data and compliance | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Physio-first notes filed into private PMS, plus phones and admin on one plan | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits; ex VAT) | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK hosting; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus; ISO 27001-aligned | | Heidi Health | Multi-specialty scribe with a free tier and UK private PMS integrations | Free; Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55, Practice £65 per user/month billed annually | Cliniko (Practice/Enterprise), Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS | UK hosting; ISO 27001; Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC | | Tandem Health | Free tier with unlimited notes; Class IIa | Free; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly (£69 monthly) | EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx | European data centres; ISO 27001; Class IIa (EU MDR) | | Accurx Scribe | Tandem technology priced by GP list size | From £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year | EMIS, SystmOne | London Azure hosting; ISO 27001 (company) | | Anima | Scribe inside a GP platform with triage and AI receptionist | Not published | EMIS, SystmOne | MHRA Class I; DTAC; hosting not published | | Lyrebird Health (for reference) | UK-hosted scribe for specialists and NHS clinicians | Free; Pro £50/user/month (UK pricing page) or £59 (help centre) | No UK PMS or GP system listed | UK storage; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus | ### What Lyrebird Health is Lyrebird stores UK data in the UK, is registered with the MHRA as a Class I medical device, is Cyber Essentials Plus certified and says data is never used to train AI. It offers part-time discounts of up to 50% and a free plan with 50 actions a month. Its UK site positions it for NHS trusts, GPs and specialists. ### Three reasons UK clinicians look elsewhere - No UK system integration. Lyrebird's UK integrations page doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS or SystmOne. - Two published prices. Its UK pricing page and help centre give different Pro prices (£50 vs £59 a month, £450 vs £480 a year). - Integrations built for other markets. The systems its UK integrations page does list are Best Practice and Gentu (Australian) and the hospital EHRs Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom pricing): for multi-site groups that need SSO, advanced roles and a procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Lyrebird lists no UK PMS integration; Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase and, like Lyrebird, stores data in the UK with an MHRA Class I scribe. One shared credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale, so there are no per-seat fees for part-time associates. Try it on the free plan, or estimate your clinic's cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics leaving Lyrebird because they want notes filed into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT; 15% off annually. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, with physio-first templates covering objective measures and exercise prescription, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review. The same credit pool runs the Phone Agent (AI receptionist), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Patient data stays in the UK, audio is deleted within 48 hours, the Scribe Agent is MHRA-registered as a Class I medical device, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - Credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans, so part-time associates don't need full seats - Same pool covers AI receptionist, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - UK data residency, audio deleted within 48 hours, MHRA Class I, DTAC-assessed Limitations: - No EMIS or SystmOne integration, so it isn't built for NHS GP practices - Three PMS integrations today; TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and Jane need copy-paste - No in-consult clinical evidence or coding assistant ### 2. Heidi Health Best for: Multi-specialty clinicians wanting a per-seat scribe with a free tier, UK private PMS integrations and NHS-facing compliance documentation Pricing: Free £0; Scribe Plus £45 and Clinician £55 per user/month billed annually (£60 and £70 monthly per the page's price data); Practice £65 per user/month billed annually; Enterprise custom. Excludes sales tax. Read from heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Heidi is a multi-specialty AI scribe with a free tier, 14-day trials of paid plans and extras including clinical evidence, coding and dictation. Its UK integrations page lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and EMIS among others; its Cliniko page says that integration is available on the Practice and Enterprise plans. Its UK compliance page lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 and DCB0160 safety documentation, DSPT, UK-hosted data, no audio recordings stored, and no training on patient or customer data. Strengths: - Free tier and 14-day trials of paid plans - Lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble and WriteUpp integrations - UK-hosted data, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 - Evidence and coding features alongside the scribe Limitations: - Per-seat pricing; Cliniko integration needs the £65 Practice plan or Enterprise - Multi-specialty defaults may need template work for physio output - Scribe only: phones, billing and audit need other tools ### 3. Tandem Health Best for: Clinicians in NHS and European settings, including EMIS, SystmOne and Semble users, looking for a Class IIa CE-marked scribe with a free tier Pricing: Free tier; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly or £69 monthly; Enterprise tailored. VAT not published. Read from tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Tandem Health is a Swedish AI medical scribe (Tandem Health AB) with solution pages for medicine, mental health, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry, pharmacy and social services. The free plan includes unlimited note generation, up to two custom templates and up to two co-workers; Pro adds more templates and Pro Actions. It also offers a coding assistant, clinical decision support and dictation, and it powers Accurx Scribe for NHS practices. Its listed certifications are ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, NHS DSPT, and CE marking as a Class IIa medical device under EU MDR. Data is processed and stored exclusively in European data centres rather than in the UK. UK integrations listed include EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus; Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Jane and WriteUpp aren't listed. Strengths: - Free tier with unlimited note generation - Class IIa CE marking under EU MDR; ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and Cyber Essentials Plus - EMIS Web, SystmOne and Semble integrations - Coding assistant and clinical decision support Limitations: - Data stored in European data centres; UK hosting not published - No Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3 or WriteUpp integration listed - Per-seat Pro pricing (£59 to £69 per user a month) - VAT treatment not published ### 4. Accurx Scribe Best for: NHS GP practices on Accurx, EMIS or SystmOne, priced by registered list size Pricing: From 40p per registered patient per year: £0.50 (1–14,999 patients), £0.47, £0.43, £0.40 (800,000+). Unlimited scribes. VAT not published. Read from accurx.com/scribe-pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Accurx Scribe is Accurx's ambient scribe for general practice and secondary care, built on Tandem's technology. It saves notes to EMIS and SystmOne with one click and is priced per registered patient per year with unlimited scribes, so a practice pays by list size rather than by clinician. Accurx's company security page says it holds ISO 27001 certification, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, is DSPT assured, and hosts servers in Microsoft Azure's London data centre. These are company-wide statements rather than Scribe-specific ones. Accurx doesn't describe a route for private clinics without a registered patient list. Strengths: - List-size pricing with unlimited scribes - One-click save to EMIS and SystmOne - London-hosted servers; ISO 27001 and DSPT at company level - Available to practices already using Accurx Limitations: - Priced per registered patient, which doesn't fit private clinics - No private-practice PMS integration listed - VAT, trial and minimum term not published ### 5. Anima Best for: NHS GP practices wanting a scribe inside a wider primary-care platform Pricing: Not published (book a demo). Read 10 Oct 2026. Anima is a primary-care platform covering triage, appointments, messaging, documents, an AI receptionist and the Annie scribe and co-pilot, which attaches SNOMED codes. It integrates with EMIS and SystmOne, GP Connect and PDS. Its scribe page lists MHRA Class I medical device, DCB0129, GDPR, DTAC and Cyber Essentials. It doesn't publish prices, ISO 27001 or data hosting location, and its site doesn't describe an offer for private clinics. Strengths: - Scribe, triage and AI receptionist in one GP platform - EMIS and SystmOne integration - MHRA Class I, DCB0129, DTAC Limitations: - Prices not published - Built for GP practices; no private-practice PMS listed - ISO 27001 and hosting location not published ### How we chose Every fact about Lyrebird, Heidi, Tandem, Accurx and Anima on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card listing its features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is the best Lyrebird alternative in the UK? For UK private and allied-health clinics, Motics. It files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, stores data in the UK, is MHRA Class I like Lyrebird, and is priced by a shared credit pool from £19 a month. Accurx Scribe and Anima are built for NHS GP practices on EMIS and SystmOne. ### Does Lyrebird integrate with Cliniko? Lyrebird's UK integrations page doesn't list Cliniko, or any other UK private-practice PMS or GP system. Motics files into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase; Heidi lists Cliniko on its Practice and Enterprise plans. ### How much does Lyrebird cost compared with alternatives? Lyrebird Pro is £50 per user a month on its UK pricing page or £59 in its help centre. Other published prices on 10 October 2026: Motics Starter £19 a month and Team from £98 a month ex VAT (704 shared credits), with unlimited users sharing one credit pool; Heidi Scribe Plus £45 and Clinician £55 per user a month billed annually; Tandem Pro £59 billed yearly. Accurx Scribe is £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year for GP practices. Per-seat and credit pricing work differently, so estimate your clinic's cost on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Which alternatives store data in the UK like Lyrebird? Motics (UK data residency) and Heidi (locally hosted within the UK) both host in the UK. Accurx says its servers are in Microsoft Azure's London data centre. Tandem stores data in European data centres, and Anima doesn't publish a hosting location. ### Is there a free alternative to Lyrebird? Motics has a free plan with 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat (around one note a day), no card required. Heidi has a free tier and Tandem a free plan with unlimited note generation. Lyrebird's own free plan gives 50 actions a month without integrations. ### Which Lyrebird alternatives are MHRA-registered medical devices? Motics and Anima say their scribes are MHRA Class I, the same as Lyrebird. Tandem states Class IIa under EU MDR. Heidi's UK compliance page doesn't state a device class. ### When does switching from Lyrebird make sense? Switching makes sense if you want notes filed into your PMS rather than copied, your team includes part-time associates who would each need a seat, or you want phones, email and billing on the same plan. Motics covers all three and keeps the UK data storage and MHRA Class I status you have with Lyrebird. Export any letters or documents stored only in Lyrebird before you cancel. ### Sources - [Lyrebird Health — UK pricing page (£50/month, £450/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — Pricing, how do I pay? (£59/month, £480/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/10066768-pricing-how-do-i-pay) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — plan comparison (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/15884012-plan-comparison-which-plan-is-right-for-you) - [Lyrebird Health — UK compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/uk-compliance) - [Lyrebird Health — UK integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/integrations) - [Heidi — UK pricing (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/integrations) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration (plan availability) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/integrations/cliniko) - [Heidi — UK compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/compliance/uk) - [Tandem Health — pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing) - [Tandem Health — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/integrations) - [Tandem Health — data security and certifications (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/data-security) - [Accurx — Scribe pricing (per patient, per year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/scribe-pricing) - [Accurx — security for healthcare professionals (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/security-for-healthcare-professionals) - [Anima — home page (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.animahealth.com/) - [Anima — Scribe (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.animahealth.com/products/scribe) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Scribe Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/) ## Accurx Scribe Alternatives for UK Private Clinics (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/accurx-scribe-alternatives-private-clinics/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Accurx Scribe is built for NHS general practice: it costs £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year and saves to EMIS and SystmOne. Most private clinics have no registered list and run a private PMS. Alternatives include Motics (our product), Heidi, Tandem and Lyrebird. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: it files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, keeps data in the UK and starts free, with Starter at £19 a month. Key takeaways: - Accurx Scribe pricing is per registered patient per year (£0.50 for lists under 15,000, down to £0.40 above 800,000), with unlimited scribes. That model assumes an NHS patient list. - Accurx Scribe saves to EMIS and SystmOne; Accurx doesn't list a private-practice PMS integration or a private-clinic offer. - Tandem, whose technology powers Accurx Scribe, sells its own Pro plan to individuals at £59 per user a month billed yearly. - Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase and prices by credits, with unlimited users on one shared pool; Heidi lists Cliniko (Practice plan), Nookal, TM3, Semble and WriteUpp. - For private clinics on Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, Motics is the closest fit: notes file directly, pricing doesn't depend on a patient list, and the same credits also cover phone, email and billing agents. ### Accurx Scribe alternatives for private clinics | Alternative | Main focus | Published GBP pricing | UK integrations | UK data and compliance | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Motics | Physio-first notes filed into private PMS, plus phones and admin on one plan | Free; Starter £19/month; Team from £98/month (704 shared credits; ex VAT) | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | UK hosting; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus; ISO 27001-aligned | | Heidi Health | Multi-specialty scribe with a free tier and a broad UK private PMS list | Free; Scribe Plus £45, Clinician £55, Practice £65 per user/month billed annually | Cliniko (Practice/Enterprise), Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp, EMIS | UK hosting; ISO 27001; Cyber Essentials Plus; DTAC | | Tandem Health | Free tier with unlimited notes; Class IIa | Free; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly (£69 monthly) | EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx | European data centres; ISO 27001; Class IIa (EU MDR) | | Lyrebird Health | UK-hosted scribe for specialists and NHS clinicians | Free; Pro £50/user/month (UK pricing page) or £59 (help centre) | No UK PMS or GP system listed | UK storage; MHRA Class I; Cyber Essentials Plus | | Accurx Scribe (for reference) | Tandem technology priced by GP list size | From £0.40 to £0.50 per registered patient per year | EMIS, SystmOne | London Azure hosting; ISO 27001 (company) | ### Why Accurx Scribe rarely fits a private clinic Accurx Scribe is priced for NHS practices: a practice with 10,000 registered patients pays £0.50 per patient per year, about £5,000 a year or £417 a month, for unlimited scribes, with one-click saving to EMIS and SystmOne. But the price is based on a registered list, and Accurx's pricing page sells self-serve only to practices by list size. A physio, podiatry or private GP clinic usually has no registered list and runs a private PMS, so neither the pricing nor the integration applies. ### What to look for instead - Your PMS. Filing notes straight into Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble or WriteUpp saves more time than any feature. - A pricing model that fits your roster. Per-seat plans suit full-time teams; shared credit pools suit clinics with part-time associates. - UK governance. UK or EU hosting, medical device registration, DTAC and a clear policy on audio retention and model training. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. No card required. - Starter (£19 a month): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day. No contract. - Team (from £98 a month: 704 shared credits): one shared clinic pool, unlimited users, and the Phone, Email and Billing agents. Part-time associates don't need their own seat. - Scale (from £290 a month: 2,640 shared credits): plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Accurx's per-patient pricing and EMIS/SystmOne saving don't carry over to a private clinic. Motics is built for that gap: notes file into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, patient data stays in the UK, and one credit pool with unlimited users covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing. Prices are ex VAT and annual billing is 15% cheaper; model your own clinic with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Scribe Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics on Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase that can't use list-based NHS pricing Pricing: Free (25 credits/month), Starter £19/month (110 credits), Team from £98/month (704 shared credits), Scale from £290/month (2,640 shared credits). About 1 credit per Scribe note. Ex VAT; 15% off annually. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Scribe Agent drafts SOAP notes, treatment plans, referral letters and patient summaries from ambient capture or dictation, with physio-first templates covering objective measures and exercise prescription, and files them into Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase after clinician review. The same credit pool runs the Phone Agent (AI receptionist), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based: about 1 credit per note, a free plan with 25 credits a month, Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool. Patient data stays in the UK, audio is deleted within 48 hours, the Scribe Agent is MHRA-registered as a Class I medical device, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Physio-first templates: SOAP, objective measures, exercise prescription, referrer letters - Files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - Credit pricing with unlimited users on clinic plans, so part-time associates don't need full seats - Same pool covers AI receptionist, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - UK data residency, audio deleted within 48 hours, MHRA Class I, DTAC-assessed Limitations: - No EMIS or SystmOne integration, so it isn't built for NHS GP practices - Three PMS integrations today; TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and Jane need copy-paste - No in-consult clinical evidence or coding assistant ### 2. Heidi Health Best for: Multi-specialty clinicians wanting a free tier, a broad UK private PMS list and NHS-facing compliance documentation Pricing: Free £0; Scribe Plus £45 and Clinician £55 per user/month billed annually (£60 and £70 monthly per the page's price data); Practice £65 per user/month billed annually; Enterprise custom. Excludes sales tax. Read from heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Heidi is a multi-specialty AI scribe with a free tier, 14-day trials of paid plans and extras including clinical evidence, coding and dictation. Its UK integrations page lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble, WriteUpp and EMIS among others; its Cliniko page says that integration is available on the Practice and Enterprise plans. Its UK compliance page lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 and DCB0160 safety documentation, DSPT, UK-hosted data, no audio recordings stored, and no training on patient or customer data. Strengths: - Free tier and 14-day trials of paid plans - Lists Cliniko, Nookal, TM3, Semble and WriteUpp integrations - UK-hosted data, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, DTAC, DCB0129 - Evidence and coding features alongside the scribe Limitations: - Per-seat pricing; Cliniko integration needs the £65 Practice plan or Enterprise - Multi-specialty defaults may need template work for physio output - Scribe only: phones, billing and audit need other tools ### 3. Tandem Health Best for: Clinicians in NHS and European settings, and Semble users, wanting a Class IIa scribe with a free tier Pricing: Free tier; Pro £59 per user/month billed yearly or £69 monthly; Enterprise tailored. VAT not published. Read from tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Tandem Health is a Swedish AI medical scribe (Tandem Health AB) with solution pages for medicine, mental health, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry, pharmacy and social services. The free plan includes unlimited note generation, up to two custom templates and up to two co-workers; Pro adds more templates and Pro Actions. It also offers a coding assistant, clinical decision support and dictation, and it powers Accurx Scribe for NHS practices. Its stated certifications are ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, UK Cyber Essentials Plus, NHS DSPT, and CE marking as a Class IIa medical device under EU MDR. Data is processed and stored exclusively in European data centres rather than in the UK. UK integrations listed include EMIS Web, SystmOne, Semble, Accurx and iaptus; Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Jane and WriteUpp aren't listed. Strengths: - Free tier with unlimited note generation - Class IIa CE-marked medical device; ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and Cyber Essentials Plus - EMIS Web, SystmOne and Semble integrations - Coding assistant and clinical decision support Limitations: - Data stored in European data centres; UK hosting not published - No Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3 or WriteUpp integration listed - Per-seat Pro pricing (£59 to £69 per user a month) - VAT treatment not published ### 4. Lyrebird Health Best for: NHS trust, GP and specialist clinicians, per its UK site, with UK-hosted data Pricing: Free (50 actions/month, no integrations); Pro £50 per user/month or £450/year on the UK pricing page, but £59/month or £480/year in its help centre. VAT not published. Read 10 Oct 2026. Lyrebird Health is an Australian-founded AI scribe whose UK site says it is built for UK NHS trusts, GPs and specialists. Beyond notes it offers documents and letters, a document sorter and practice management features. Part-time clinicians can get discounts of up to 50% at checkout, and registrars a larger discount on Pro. Its UK compliance page says data is stored in the United Kingdom (with model inference running transiently in the EU), that it is registered with the MHRA as a Class I medical device, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certified, DTAC compliant on an internal assessment and compliant with DSPT, and that data is never used to train an AI model. Its UK integrations page lists Best Practice and Gentu (Australian systems) plus Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech; it doesn't list Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase, TM3, Semble, EMIS or SystmOne. Strengths: - UK data storage and MHRA Class I registration - Cyber Essentials Plus certified - Free plan with 50 actions a month - Part-time discounts of up to 50% on Pro Limitations: - Its own pages give two different Pro prices (£50 vs £59 a month; £450 vs £480 a year) - No UK private-practice PMS or GP system integration listed - ISO 27001 not published - UK pages carry Australian features and terminology ### How we chose Every fact about Accurx, Heidi, Tandem and Lyrebird on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card: Motics with strengths and limitations, the others with key features and limitations, all taken from the vendors' own pages. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### Can a private clinic use Accurx Scribe? Accurx prices Scribe per registered patient per year and sells self-serve by practice list size, with integration to EMIS and SystmOne. It doesn't describe an offer for private clinics without a registered list. If your clinic runs Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, Motics files notes there directly and prices by usage rather than by list size. ### How much does Accurx Scribe cost? From 40p per patient per year, banded by list size: £0.50 for 1 to 14,999 patients, £0.47 for 15,000 to 89,999, £0.43 for 90,000 to 799,999 and £0.40 for 800,000 or more, with unlimited scribes. Larger bands are sold through sales. VAT isn't stated. Checked 10 October 2026. ### What's the cheapest Accurx Scribe alternative for a private clinic? It depends on the pricing model and your roster. Per-seat plans charge for every clinician: Heidi Scribe Plus is £45 and Tandem Pro £59 per user a month billed annually, and both have free tiers. Motics charges for usage instead: a Free plan (25 credits a month), Starter at £19 a month for a solo clinician, and Team from £98 a month ex VAT (704 shared credits) with unlimited users sharing one pool, so part-time associates don't need a seat each. To compare for your own clinic, use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Is Tandem the same as Accurx Scribe? Accurx Scribe is powered by Tandem's technology, per Tandem's news page. Tandem sells its own plans directly (free, or Pro at £59 per user a month billed yearly) with EMIS Web, SystmOne and Semble integrations. Tandem stores data in European data centres. ### Which alternatives integrate with Cliniko? Motics files notes into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. Heidi lists Cliniko on its Practice (£65 per user a month billed annually) and Enterprise plans. Tandem and Lyrebird don't list Cliniko. ### Do private clinics need an MHRA-registered scribe? AI scribes that generate clinical documentation are increasingly treated as medical devices, and registration is a useful assurance signal. Motics and Lyrebird state MHRA Class I; Tandem states Class IIa under EU MDR. Heidi's UK compliance page lists DTAC and DCB0129/0160 but doesn't state a device class. Record your choice and the vendor's evidence in your DPIA and clinical safety records. ### Sources - [Accurx — Scribe pricing (per patient, per year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/scribe-pricing) - [Accurx — Scribe (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/scribe) - [Accurx — security for healthcare professionals (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.accurx.com/security-for-healthcare-professionals) - [Tandem Health — news: Tandem and Accurx partnership (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/resources/news/tandem-has-teamed-up-with-accurx-to-deliver-our-ai-medical-scribe-to-200-000-nhs-staff) - [Tandem Health — pricing (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/pricing) - [Tandem Health — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://tandemhealth.ai/product/integrations) - [Heidi — UK pricing (GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing) - [Heidi — integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/integrations) - [Heidi — Cliniko integration (plan availability) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.heidihealth.com/integrations/cliniko) - [Lyrebird Health — UK pricing page (£50/month, £450/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/lyrebird-pricing) - [Lyrebird Health help centre — Pricing, how do I pay? (£59/month, £480/year) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyrebirdhealth.com/en/articles/10066768-pricing-how-do-i-pay) - [Lyrebird Health — UK integrations (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.lyrebirdhealth.com/uk/integrations) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Scribe Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/scribe/) ## Motics vs Lyngo (Able AI Receptionist) for UK Clinics (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-lyngo/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Lyngo is an Australian-built AI receptionist for allied health, listed in Cliniko as Able AI Receptionist by Lyngo. It charges per call, from £69 a month ex VAT for 45 calls. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite whose Phone Agent uses per-minute credits from one pool that also covers notes, email and billing. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: patient data stays in the UK, it adds Meddbase booking, and phones and notes share one plan. Key takeaways: - Lyngo and Able are the same product: Cliniko's directory lists "Able AI Receptionist — by Lyngo". Lyngo's own site doesn't use the Able name. - Lyngo bills per answered call (£69 to £450 a month ex VAT for 45 to 500 calls, then £0.90 to £1.50 a call), with unlimited minutes per call. Motics bills call minutes from a shared credit pool, roughly 33p to 42p a minute on monthly list prices. - Rule of thumb: per-minute pricing favours short calls and per-call pricing favours long ones. Work out your average call length before comparing. - Lyngo's sub-processor list puts hosting and storage in Australia and AI processing in the United States. Motics stores data in the UK. - Both integrate with Cliniko and Nookal. Lyngo adds PracSuite and Splose; Motics adds Meddbase, plus notes, email and billing on the same plan. ### Motics vs Lyngo at a glance | | Motics Phone Agent | Lyngo (Able AI Receptionist) | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | AI receptionist inside a clinic AI suite (Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit) | Standalone AI receptionist for allied health | | Published GBP pricing | Team from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits); calls 3 credits a minute | Starter £69 (45 calls), Growth £125 (100), Pro £199 (200), Scale £450 (500) per month, GBP ex VAT | | Billing unit | Call minutes, drawn from a shared credit pool | Answered calls (inbound calls over 10 seconds); unlimited minutes per call | | Over the allowance | Plan credit rate: £0.14 a credit on Team (about 42p a minute) | £1.50 to £0.90 a call depending on plan | | Trial and terms | Free plan for Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans | 14 days free, free setup, no lock-in contracts | | PMS booking | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite, Splose | | Where data is hosted | UK | Australia (hosting and storage) and United States (AI processing), per Lyngo's sub-processor list | | Security certifications | UK GDPR; Cyber Essentials Plus; security aligned to ISO 27001 | GDPR badge; ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials not published | | Beyond the phones | Clinical notes, patient email, billing, documentation audit | SMS allowance; outbound rebooking (some features marked coming soon) | ### Lyngo, Able: one product, two names If you've seen "Able AI Receptionist" in Cliniko's connected apps and "Lyngo" in a search result, they're the same thing. Cliniko's directory lists the app as Able AI Receptionist with Lyngo as the developer. Lyngo's own website and help centre don't mention the Able name, and we found nothing on them describing a rebrand. Lyngo says it operates in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and Malta, with offices in Sydney and London. ### Per call or per minute: the pricing difference that matters Lyngo charges per answered call: a monthly plan includes a number of calls (45 on Starter up to 500 on Scale) and each extra call costs £0.90 to £1.50. Only inbound calls longer than 10 seconds count, and a call can last as long as it needs to. Allowances don't roll over. Motics doesn't charge per call. Calls draw 3 credits a minute from the clinic's shared pool. On list prices a credit costs about 11p to 14p (extra credits £0.13 to £0.14), which works out at roughly 33p to 42p per call minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount. So a three-minute call costs roughly £1.00 to £1.26 on Motics, about the same as a Lyngo overage call. Short booking calls usually cost less on Motics, and the credits you don't spend on phones go to notes, email and billing instead. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. The way to try Motics for clinical notes before you add the phones. - Starter (£19 a month ex VAT): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day, no contract. Scribe and Chat only. - Team (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits): the plan where the Phone Agent starts. It adds the Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. Calls use 3 credits a minute. - Scale (from £290 a month ex VAT: 2,640 shared credits): for busier clinics, plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics keeps patient data in the UK, while Lyngo's sub-processor list names Australia for hosting and the United States for AI processing. Motics books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and one credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale and no per-seat fees. Start on the free plan for notes, then size a Team pool for your call volume with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). Check before you sign: ask any AI receptionist vendor where call audio and transcripts are stored, how long they're kept, and which sub-processors handle them. Lyngo publishes a sub-processor list; record the answer in your DPIA either way. ### 1. Motics Phone Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics that want phones answered and booked, with notes, email and billing on the same credit pool and UK-hosted data Pricing: Phone Agent from Team: from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from a shared pool; extra usage at £0.14 a credit (about 42p a minute) on Team. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 on your existing number, books into your diary in Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, summarises every call, transfers complex calls to your team and alerts you to urgent ones. The same plan and credit pool also run the Scribe Agent (clinical notes), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale the Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based rather than per call: the Phone Agent comes with the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits, unlimited users), calls use 3 credits a minute, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate so the phones are never cut off. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - One credit pool also covers notes, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - Unlimited users on clinic plans; no per-seat or per-location fees - UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data - Free plan to try Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans Limitations: - Phone Agent starts at the Team plan (£98/month minimum ex VAT); the Free and Starter plans cover Scribe and Chat only - Per-minute credit use means long calls cost more than on a flat per-call or unlimited plan - Three PMS integrations today (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase); other systems need a different workflow ### 2. Lyngo (Able AI Receptionist) Best for: Allied-health clinics wanting a standalone AI receptionist billed per answered call, including PracSuite and Splose users Pricing: GBP ex VAT per month: Starter £69 (45 calls), Growth £125 (100), Pro £199 (200), Scale £450 (500); extra calls £1.50 to £0.90; Enterprise custom. 14 days free. Read from lyngo.ai/pricing (GBP toggle), 10 Oct 2026. Lyngo is an AI receptionist built in Australia for physio, chiro, osteo, podiatry, psychology and other allied-health clinics. It answers 24/7, books, reschedules and cancels in the PMS, transfers urgent or clinical calls with a summary or takes a message, and covers lunch, busy periods and after hours. It offers a choice of accents, and outbound rebooking is listed with some features marked coming soon. Its pricing is per answered call, with unlimited minutes per call, an SMS allowance on every plan, free setup and no lock-in. For a UK clinic the practical checks are data location (Lyngo's sub-processor list names Australia for hosting and storage and the US for AI processing) and certifications, which it doesn't publish beyond GDPR and privacy-law badges. Strengths: - Billed per answered call, with unlimited minutes per call - Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Splose integrations - 14-day free trial, free setup, no lock-in contracts - Publishes a sub-processor list Limitations: - Data hosted in Australia with AI processing in the US, per its sub-processor list; UK hosting not published - ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials not published - Phone-only: notes, email automation and billing need other tools - Call allowances don't roll over ### How we chose Every fact about Lyngo on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card: Motics with its strengths and limitations, and the other vendor with its published features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is Able AI Receptionist the same as Lyngo? Yes. Cliniko's connected-apps directory lists "Able AI Receptionist — by Lyngo" with Lyngo as the app developer. Lyngo's own website and help centre use the Lyngo name only, so search for Lyngo when you look for pricing and policies. ### How much does Lyngo cost in the UK? Lyngo's pricing page shows GBP ex VAT when you switch currency: Starter £69 a month (45 calls), Growth £125 (100 calls), Pro £199 (200 calls) and Scale £450 (500 calls), with extra calls at £1.50, £1.25, £1.00 and £0.90 respectively. Enterprise is custom. Prices checked on 10 October 2026. ### Is Motics cheaper than Lyngo? It depends on call length and what else you pay for. Motics bills call minutes at 3 credits a minute, roughly 33p to 42p a minute on monthly list prices; Lyngo bills per answered call, from £69 a month for 45 calls, whatever the call length. Short booking calls usually cost less on Motics, and if you also pay for an AI scribe, the Motics Team plan covers notes and phones from one pool. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to model your own call volume. ### Where does Lyngo store UK patient data? Lyngo's sub-processor article lists Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, with hosting and storage in Australia and AI processing in the United States. It doesn't publish a UK hosting option. Motics stores patient data in the UK. Record the transfer arrangements for any AI receptionist in your DPIA. ### Which PMS systems do Motics and Lyngo book into? Both book into Cliniko and Nookal. Lyngo also lists PracSuite and Splose. Motics also integrates with Meddbase. If you're on TM3, Semble, WriteUpp or Jane, neither lists a booking integration for that system on its site. ### Can an AI receptionist transfer calls to my team? Both do. Lyngo transfers urgent or clinical calls with a summary or takes a message; Motics transfers complex calls to your team and alerts you to urgent ones. Decide in advance which call types should always reach a person, such as clinical concerns, complaints or safeguarding, and set the rules during onboarding. ### Can I try Motics before committing? Yes. Motics has a free plan for Scribe and Chat with no card required, and paid plans have no contract, so you can run the Phone Agent on Team for a month and cancel if it isn't right. Lyngo offers 14 days free with free setup. Test any AI receptionist on a week of your real calls and check how many were booked without staff help. ### Sources - [Lyngo — pricing (GBP ex VAT via currency toggle) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://lyngo.ai/pricing/) - [Lyngo — Cliniko integration (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://lyngo.ai/integrations/cliniko/) - [Lyngo help centre — sub-processors (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyngo.ai/en/articles/13597418-lyngo-ai-sub-processors) - [Lyngo help centre — privacy and compliance (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://help.lyngo.ai/en/collections/18259351-privacy-compliance) - [Cliniko connected apps — Able AI Receptionist by Lyngo (vendor-supplied listing) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/lyngo-ai/) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Phone Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/) ## Motics vs Aeva AI Receptionist for UK Clinics (2026) URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-aeva/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. Aeva is an AI receptionist for allied-health clinics, priced by calls per month: £139 for 100 calls up to £399 for 500, with outbound calls and web chat included. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite whose Phone Agent draws credits from a pool shared with notes, email and billing. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit: patient data is stored in the UK, it books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and one plan covers phones and notes. Key takeaways: - Aeva's GBP tiers: 100 calls £139, 200 calls £199, 350 calls £299, 500 calls £399 a month, then £1.70 a call. Its site doesn't say whether VAT is included. - Aeva includes outbound calls (same allowance) and unlimited web chat, and says it never charges per practitioner or per location. - Aeva's statements on data location differ: its Cliniko listing says data is stored on encrypted servers in Australia, while its privacy policy (updated 22 June 2026) says processing occurs primarily in US cloud environments. Ask Aeva to confirm in writing. - Motics stores data in the UK and adds Meddbase plus clinical notes, email, billing and audit on the same credit pool. - Both book into Cliniko and Nookal; Aeva also lists Splose and PracSuite, and Motics adds Meddbase. ### Motics vs Aeva at a glance | | Motics Phone Agent | Aeva AI | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | AI receptionist inside a clinic AI suite (Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit) | AI receptionist with outbound calls and web chat | | Published GBP pricing | Team from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits); calls 3 credits a minute | 100 calls £139, 200 £199, 350 £299, 500 £399 per month | | VAT | Prices ex VAT | Not published | | Billing unit | Call minutes from a shared credit pool | Calls per month (outbound calls get the same allowance) | | Over the allowance | Plan credit rate: £0.14 a credit on Team (about 42p a minute) | £1.70 a call | | Trial and terms | Free plan for Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans | 14 days free; no setup fee, minimum term or lock-in | | PMS booking | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite, Nookal | | Where data is processed | UK | Cliniko listing: Australia. Privacy policy: primarily US cloud environments | | Security certifications | UK GDPR; Cyber Essentials Plus; security aligned to ISO 27001 | UK and EU GDPR claimed in Cliniko listing; ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials not published | | Beyond the phones | Clinical notes, patient email, billing, documentation audit | Web chat, deposits, outbound rebooking | ### Two receptionists with different shapes Aeva is built around the front desk: it answers 24/7, books, reschedules and cancels in your PMS with an SMS confirmation, recognises returning patients, handles overflow with warm transfers or messages, escalates emergencies, takes deposits, makes outbound rebooking calls and runs web chat. It says it's trusted by over 500 clinics across Australia and the UK. Motics' Phone Agent handles the core call tasks (answering, booking, summaries, transfers, urgent alerts) and sits inside a suite that also writes clinical notes and handles patient email and billing. ### How the pricing compares Aeva prices by call volume, so a 200-call month is £199 whether calls last one minute or ten, and overage is £1.70 a call. Motics doesn't charge per call. Calls draw 3 credits a minute from the clinic's shared pool. On list prices a credit costs about 11p to 14p (extra credits £0.13 to £0.14), which works out at roughly 33p to 42p per call minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount. At Aeva's tiers a call costs about 80p to £1.39 within the allowance, the same as roughly two to four minutes of Motics time. If most of your calls are short bookings, Motics is likely to cost less per call, and the credits you don't spend on phones go to notes, email and billing. ### The data location question UK clinics should ask every vendor where call audio and transcripts are processed. Aeva's published answers point in two directions: its Cliniko listing says data is stored on encrypted servers in Australia, while its own privacy policy, updated 22 June 2026, says data processing occurs primarily in US cloud environments, with call recordings stored in Microsoft Azure, AI processing by Anthropic and OpenAI, and recordings deleted when the subscription is cancelled. Neither location is necessarily a problem under UK GDPR with the right transfer safeguards, but you need one clear answer for your DPIA. Motics stores patient data in the UK. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. The way to try Motics for clinical notes before you add the phones. - Starter (£19 a month ex VAT): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day, no contract. Scribe and Chat only. - Team (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits): the plan where the Phone Agent starts. It adds the Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. Calls use 3 credits a minute. - Scale (from £290 a month ex VAT: 2,640 shared credits): for busier clinics, plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics gives a UK clinic one clear answer on data location: patient data is stored in the UK. It books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and one credit pool covers Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale and no per-seat fees. Start on the free plan for notes, then size a Team pool for your call volume with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Phone Agent Best for: UK private and allied-health clinics that want UK-hosted call data and one plan for phones, notes, email and billing Pricing: Phone Agent from Team: from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from a shared pool; extra usage at £0.14 a credit (about 42p a minute) on Team. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 on your existing number, books into your diary in Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, summarises every call, transfers complex calls to your team and alerts you to urgent ones. The same plan and credit pool also run the Scribe Agent (clinical notes), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale the Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based rather than per call: the Phone Agent comes with the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits, unlimited users), calls use 3 credits a minute, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate so the phones are never cut off. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - One credit pool also covers notes, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - Unlimited users on clinic plans; no per-seat or per-location fees - UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data - Free plan to try Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans Limitations: - Phone Agent starts at the Team plan (£98/month minimum ex VAT); the Free and Starter plans cover Scribe and Chat only - Per-minute credit use means long calls cost more than on a flat per-call or unlimited plan - Three PMS integrations today (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase); other systems need a different workflow ### 2. Aeva AI Best for: Allied-health clinics on Cliniko, Nookal, Splose or PracSuite wanting inbound calls, outbound calls and web chat on call-volume tiers Pricing: GBP per month: 100 calls £139, 200 calls £199, 350 calls £299, 500 calls £399; £1.70 a call over the allowance; VAT not published. 14 days free. Read from aevaai.com/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. Aeva is an AI receptionist for physio, chiro, osteo, podiatry, massage, acupuncture and psychology clinics. It answers around the clock, books and changes appointments directly in the PMS with an SMS confirmation, recognises returning patients, handles overflow with warm transfers or messages, escalates emergencies and takes deposits. Each tier includes the same allowance of outbound calls plus unlimited web chat. Its pricing is volume-based with no per-practitioner or per-location charge, no setup fee and no minimum term. The contact address on its site is in Auckland, New Zealand; it doesn't publish a UK address. The main thing for a UK clinic to resolve is data location, because its Cliniko listing and its privacy policy describe it differently. Strengths: - Call-volume tiers with outbound calls and unlimited web chat included - No per-practitioner or per-location fees, no setup fee, no minimum term - Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal integrations - Deposits and outbound rebooking Limitations: - Data location: the Cliniko listing says Australia; the privacy policy says primarily the US - VAT treatment not published - ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials not published - £1.70 per call over the allowance; phone-only, so notes and billing need other tools ### How we chose Every fact about Aeva on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card: Motics with its strengths and limitations, and the other vendor with its published features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does Aeva cost in the UK? Aeva's pricing page, with GBP selected, lists monthly tiers by call volume: 100 calls £139, 200 calls £199, 350 calls £299 and 500 calls £399, with £1.70 per call over the allowance. Each tier includes the same allowance of outbound calls and unlimited web chat. The page doesn't say whether VAT is included. Checked 10 October 2026. ### Is Motics cheaper than Aeva? For short calls, usually. Motics bills call minutes at 3 credits a minute, roughly 33p to 42p a minute on monthly list prices, while Aeva's tiers work out at about 80p to £1.39 a call whatever the length, with outbound calls and web chat included. If you also pay for a scribe, include it: the Motics Team plan covers notes and phones from one pool. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to model your own call volume. ### Where does Aeva store patient data? Aeva's Cliniko listing says data is stored on encrypted servers in Australia. Its privacy policy, updated 22 June 2026, says data processing occurs primarily in US cloud environments and names Microsoft Azure for call recordings and Anthropic and OpenAI for AI processing. Ask Aeva which applies to UK clinics and get it in the data processing agreement. Motics stores patient data in the UK. ### Which practice management systems do Motics and Aeva support? Both book into Cliniko and Nookal. Aeva also lists Splose and PracSuite. Motics also integrates with Meddbase. Neither lists TM3, Semble or WriteUpp booking on its site. ### Does Aeva make outbound calls? Yes. Each Aeva tier includes outbound calls with the same allowance as inbound, used for things like rebooking. Motics' Phone Agent is focused on inbound calls: answering, booking, summarising, transferring and alerting your team. ### How long does Aeva keep call recordings? Aeva's privacy policy says call recordings are deleted upon subscription cancellation, so they're kept for as long as you subscribe unless you agree otherwise. Ask any vendor for a defined retention period that matches your records policy. ### Can I switch from Aeva to Motics? Yes. Your appointments live in your PMS, not the receptionist, so switching mostly means moving call forwarding and recreating your call rules: opening hours, services, transfer rules and urgent-call handling. Run the new receptionist on overflow first, then move your main line once you're happy. ### Sources - [Aeva — pricing (GBP selected) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.aevaai.com/pricing) - [Aeva — privacy policy (updated 22 June 2026) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://aevaai.com/privacy-policy) - [Cliniko connected apps — Aeva AI (vendor-supplied listing) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.cliniko.com/connected-apps/aeva-ai/) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Phone Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/) ## Motics vs BookedSolid for UK Clinics (2026): AI Receptionist Comparison URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-bookedsolid/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. BookedSolid is a UK-built AI receptionist priced per practitioner with unlimited inbound calls, from £49 a month ex VAT for one practitioner billed yearly. It publishes ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and NHS DSPT. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite whose Phone Agent shares a credit pool with notes, email and billing. For UK private clinics, Motics is the stronger fit because one plan covers phones, clinical notes, email, billing and audit, with UK-hosted data and Meddbase booking. Key takeaways: - BookedSolid's GBP prices (ex VAT): 1 practitioner £49 billed yearly or £59 monthly; 2 to 4 practitioners £99 or £109; 5 practitioners £109 or £119; 10 practitioners £161 or £189; 20 practitioners £309 or £363; custom above 20. - Every BookedSolid plan includes unlimited inbound calls and messages and unlimited locations. - BookedSolid publishes ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification (British Assessment Bureau, valid to 3 August 2029) and NHS DSPT 2025–26, and says UK and EU clinic data stays in the UK and EU. - Motics puts the receptionist, an AI scribe, email, billing and documentation audit on one plan and one credit pool, and books into Meddbase. - BookedSolid lists eight PMS integrations including Semble and PracticeHub; Motics lists Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. ### Motics vs BookedSolid at a glance | | Motics Phone Agent | BookedSolid | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | AI receptionist inside a clinic AI suite (Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit) | AI receptionist across calls, SMS, WhatsApp, email and web chat | | Published GBP pricing | Team from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits); calls 3 credits a minute | Per practitioner, ex VAT: 1 £49 yearly / £59 monthly; 2–4 £99 / £109; 5 £109 / £119; 10 £161 / £189; 20 £309 / £363 | | Billing unit | Call minutes from a shared credit pool | Number of practitioners; unlimited inbound calls and messages | | Trial and terms | Free plan for Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans | 7-day free trial; no setup fees, no lock-in | | PMS booking | Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase | Cliniko, Coreplus, Nookal, PracticeHub, PracSuite, Splose, Semble, ClinicOffice | | Where data is hosted | UK | UK and EU clinic data stays within the UK and EU | | Security certifications | UK GDPR; Cyber Essentials Plus; security aligned to ISO 27001 | ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification (British Assessment Bureau); NHS DSPT 2025–26 | | Beyond the phones | Clinical notes, patient email, billing, documentation audit | SMS reminders, payment links, WhatsApp, email and web chat | ### What BookedSolid offers BookedSolid is a London-based company building an AI receptionist for physio, chiro, podiatry, osteo, audiology and psychology clinics. Calls are unlimited, so a clinic's cost depends on its number of practitioners, not its call volume. It integrates with eight practice management systems. Its security page states ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification from a UKAS-accredited body, NHS DSPT for 2025–26, and UK and EU data kept in the UK and EU. ### Where Motics is different Motics isn't only a receptionist. The same credit pool runs the Scribe Agent for clinical notes and letters, patient email, insurance billing and, on the Scale plan, an Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Motics doesn't charge per call. Calls draw 3 credits a minute from the clinic's shared pool. On list prices a credit costs about 11p to 14p (extra credits £0.13 to £0.14), which works out at roughly 33p to 42p per call minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount. Calls are metered rather than unlimited, so the value of Motics comes from the whole plan: the same pool pays for notes, email and billing that would otherwise need separate subscriptions. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. The way to try Motics for clinical notes before you add the phones. - Starter (£19 a month ex VAT): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day, no contract. Scribe and Chat only. - Team (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits): the plan where the Phone Agent starts. It adds the Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. Calls use 3 credits a minute. - Scale (from £290 a month ex VAT: 2,640 shared credits): for busier clinics, plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: BookedSolid covers calls and messages; Motics covers the phones and the clinical and admin work around them. One credit pool runs Scribe, Phone, Email and Billing, with unlimited users on Team and Scale, UK data residency and booking into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase. Start on the free plan for notes, then model your calls and notes together with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Phone Agent Best for: UK clinics that want phones, clinical notes, email, billing and audit on one credit pool, including Meddbase users Pricing: Phone Agent from Team: from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from a shared pool; extra usage at £0.14 a credit (about 42p a minute) on Team. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 on your existing number, books into your diary in Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, summarises every call, transfers complex calls to your team and alerts you to urgent ones. The same plan and credit pool also run the Scribe Agent (clinical notes), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale the Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based rather than per call: the Phone Agent comes with the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits, unlimited users), calls use 3 credits a minute, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate so the phones are never cut off. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - One credit pool also covers notes, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - Unlimited users on clinic plans; no per-seat or per-location fees - UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data - Free plan to try Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans Limitations: - Phone Agent starts at the Team plan (£98/month minimum ex VAT); the Free and Starter plans cover Scribe and Chat only - Per-minute credit use means long calls cost more than on a flat per-call or unlimited plan - Three PMS integrations today (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase); other systems need a different workflow ### 2. BookedSolid Best for: UK allied-health clinics wanting unlimited AI call and message handling priced per practitioner Pricing: Per practitioner per month, ex VAT: 1 £49 billed yearly (£59 monthly); 2–4 £99 (£109); 5 £109 (£119); 10 £161 (£189); 20 £309 (£363); 21+ custom. Unlimited inbound calls. 7-day trial. Read from bookedsolid.health/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. BookedSolid answers calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels against the live calendar, fills cancelled slots, answers FAQs, sends SMS reminders and payment links, and also handles WhatsApp, email and web chat. It transfers to a person or takes a message when needed. Every plan includes unlimited inbound calls and messages and unlimited locations, with no setup fee and no lock-in. Its security page states ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification by British Assessment Bureau (valid until 3 August 2029), NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit 2025–26, compliance with UK GDPR, EU GDPR and Australian and New Zealand privacy law, and that UK and EU clinic data stays within the UK and EU. It doesn't publish a Cyber Essentials status or a call-recording retention period. Strengths: - Unlimited inbound calls and messages on every plan - From £49 a month ex VAT for one practitioner billed yearly - ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and NHS DSPT 2025–26, per its security page - Eight PMS integrations, including Semble and PracticeHub - Calls, SMS, WhatsApp, email and web chat in one tool Limitations: - Phone and messaging only: clinical notes, billing and documentation audit need other tools - No Meddbase integration listed - Cyber Essentials and recording retention period not published - 7-day free trial ### How we chose Every fact about BookedSolid on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card: Motics with its strengths and limitations, and the other vendor with its published features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does BookedSolid cost? BookedSolid prices per practitioner, ex VAT: one practitioner is £49 a month billed yearly or £59 billed monthly; 2 to 4 practitioners £99 or £109; 5 practitioners £109 or £119; 10 practitioners £161 or £189; 20 practitioners £309 or £363; above 20 is custom. Every plan includes unlimited inbound calls and messages. Checked 10 October 2026. ### Is BookedSolid cheaper than Motics? The pricing models differ. BookedSolid charges per practitioner with unlimited inbound calls. Motics meters call minutes at 3 credits a minute, roughly 33p to 42p a minute on monthly list prices, from a pool that also covers clinical notes, email and billing. If you'd otherwise pay for an AI scribe or admin tools separately, include them in the comparison. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to model your own clinic. ### Does BookedSolid hold ISO 27001 certification? BookedSolid's own security page states that BookedSolid holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification (British Assessment Bureau, valid until 3 August 2029) and NHS DSPT 2025–26. Motics holds Cyber Essentials Plus, its security is aligned to ISO 27001, and it stores patient data in the UK under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic. Ask any vendor for its security documentation during procurement. ### Which PMS systems does BookedSolid integrate with? BookedSolid lists Cliniko, Coreplus, Nookal, PracticeHub, PracSuite, Splose, Semble and ClinicOffice. Motics integrates with Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, and is the one of the two that books into Meddbase. ### Can BookedSolid write clinical notes? Not according to its site: it's an AI receptionist across calls and messaging. Motics' Scribe Agent drafts clinical notes, treatment plans and referral letters, and on the Team plan the same credit pool also runs the Phone Agent, so phones and notes sit on one plan. You can try the Scribe Agent on the free plan. ### Can I use Motics for clinical notes only? Yes. Motics' Free (£0) and Starter (£19 a month ex VAT) plans cover Scribe and Chat without the Phone Agent, alongside any receptionist you already use. When you're ready to add phones, the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT) puts calls, notes, email and billing on one credit pool and one data processing agreement. ### Sources - [BookedSolid — pricing (practitioner slider, GBP ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://bookedsolid.health/pricing) - [BookedSolid — security (ISO/IEC 27001:2022, NHS DSPT, data location) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://bookedsolid.health/security) - [BookedSolid — home page (features and integrations) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://bookedsolid.health/) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Phone Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/) ## Motics vs ViveoAI for Dental Practices (2026): AI Receptionist Comparison URL: https://www.motics.ai/guides/motics-vs-viveoai-dental/ Author: Dr Harvinder Power, Co-founder & CEO, Motics (https://www.motics.ai/authors/harvinder-power/) Published: 2026-10-10. Last reviewed: 2026-10-12. ViveoAI is an AI receptionist built for UK and Irish dental practices. It costs £349 or £599 per location a month for 500 or 1,000 minutes and writes outcomes into Dentally, EXACT and other dental systems. Motics is a UK clinic AI suite that books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase, not dental PMS. For dental practices that want phones, clinical notes and admin on one plan with UK-hosted data, Motics is the stronger fit and costs less per call minute. Key takeaways: - ViveoAI per location per month: Core £349 (500 minutes, then £0.70 a minute), Professional £599 (1,000 minutes, then £0.60), Group and Multi-Site from £999. Its site doesn't say whether VAT is included. - ViveoAI lists Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei and Aerona. Motics doesn't integrate with any dental practice management system today. - On list prices Motics call time costs roughly 33p to 42p a minute, below ViveoAI's included-minute rate of about 60p to 70p, but without a dental PMS integration bookings need a different workflow. - Motics has a free plan for Scribe and Chat with no card required, and no contract on paid plans. ViveoAI offers a 14-day live pilot (up to 100 minutes at one location). - Motics adds clinical notes and referral letters for dentists, plus email and billing, from the same credit pool, with patient data stored in the UK. ViveoAI doesn't offer clinical notes. ### Motics vs ViveoAI for dental practices | | Motics Phone Agent | ViveoAI | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | AI receptionist inside a clinic AI suite (Scribe, Phone, Email, Billing, Audit) | AI receptionist built for UK and Irish dental practices | | Published GBP pricing | Team from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits); calls 3 credits a minute | Core £349, Professional £599 per location/month; Group & Multi-Site from £999 | | Included minutes | Depends on pool size: Team from £98 gives 704 credits (about 234 call minutes) | 500 (Core), 1,000 (Professional), 1,500 pooled across first two locations (Group) | | Over the allowance | Plan credit rate: £0.14 a credit on Team (about 42p a minute) | £0.70 (Core), £0.60 (Professional), £0.50 (Group) a minute | | VAT | Prices ex VAT | Not published | | Dental PMS integration | None (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase only) | Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei, Aerona | | Trial | Free plan for Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans | 14-day live pilot, up to 100 minutes at one location | | Data and compliance | UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security | GDPR-compliant; ICO-registered; ISO 27001 and UK hosting not published | | Clinical notes | Scribe Agent drafts notes, treatment plans and referral letters | Not offered | ### Dental practice systems and booking ViveoAI writes call outcomes into Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei and Aerona. Its site doesn't name Software of Excellence, so practices on SOE should ask it directly. Motics' Phone Agent books directly into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase and doesn't integrate with a dental PMS today. In a practice on another system it still answers every call, takes the patient's details, summarises the call and alerts your team, who then make the booking in the PMS. ### How the pricing compares ViveoAI sells minute bundles per location: 500 minutes for £349 (about 70p a minute) or 1,000 minutes for £599 (about 60p a minute), with overage at the same rates and a Group plan for multi-site practices that pools minutes and adds locations from £249 each. Setup and onboarding are included, though custom integration work may be quoted separately. Motics doesn't charge per call. Calls draw 3 credits a minute from the clinic's shared pool. On list prices a credit costs about 11p to 14p (extra credits £0.13 to £0.14), which works out at roughly 33p to 42p per call minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount. Motics is cheaper per minute on list prices, and the same credits also pay for clinical notes, email and billing. ### Which Motics plan fits - Free (£0): 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required, around 1 Scribe note or 10 chats a day. The way to try Motics for clinical notes before you add the phones. - Starter (£19 a month ex VAT): 110 credits for a solo clinician, around 5 Scribe notes or 50 chats a day, no contract. Scribe and Chat only. - Team (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits): the plan where the Phone Agent starts. It adds the Email and Billing agents, unlimited users and one shared clinic credit pool. Calls use 3 credits a minute. - Scale (from £290 a month ex VAT: 2,640 shared credits): for busier clinics, plus the Audit agent and compliance workflows, clinic usage analytics, priority support and guided onboarding. - Enterprise (custom): for multi-site groups, with SSO and advanced roles, and procurement and security review. What the comparison shows: Motics costs less per call minute on list prices (roughly 33p to 42p against about 60p to 70p), stores patient data in the UK, and puts phones, clinical notes, treatment plans, referral letters, email and billing on one credit pool, with unlimited users on Team and Scale. Practices on Cliniko or Meddbase get direct booking; practices on a dental PMS can start with the Scribe Agent on the free plan and add the Phone Agent on Team. Model your own practice with the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### 1. Motics Phone Agent Best for: Dental practices that want phones, clinical notes, email and billing on one plan with UK-hosted data, with direct booking for practices on Cliniko or Meddbase Pricing: Phone Agent from Team: from £98/month ex VAT (704 shared credits). Calls use 3 credits a minute from a shared pool; extra usage at £0.14 a credit (about 42p a minute) on Team. Motics is a UK-built clinic AI suite. The Phone Agent answers calls 24/7 on your existing number, books into your diary in Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, summarises every call, transfers complex calls to your team and alerts you to urgent ones. The same plan and credit pool also run the Scribe Agent (clinical notes), Email and Billing agents, and on Scale the Audit agent that reviews clinical notes for quality and CQC readiness. Pricing is credit-based rather than per call: the Phone Agent comes with the Team plan (from £98 a month ex VAT: 704 shared credits, unlimited users), calls use 3 credits a minute, and extra usage is billed at your plan's credit rate so the phones are never cut off. Data is stored in the UK, the platform processes data under UK GDPR with a data processing agreement for each clinic and security aligned to ISO 27001, and patient data is not used to train AI models. Disclosure: Motics is our product and this page lives on our site. Every competitor fact is taken from the competitor's own website or help centre, read on 10 October 2026, and anything we couldn't find there is marked "not published" rather than guessed. Strengths: - Scribe Agent drafts dental clinical notes, treatment plans and referral letters from the same credit pool - Lower per-minute call cost on list prices: roughly 33p to 42p a minute - Books into Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase - One credit pool also covers notes, email, billing and (on Scale) documentation audit - Unlimited users on clinic plans; no per-seat or per-location fees - UK data residency, UK GDPR, ISO 27001-aligned security, no training on patient data - Free plan to try Scribe and Chat; no contract on paid plans Limitations: - Phone Agent starts at the Team plan (£98/month minimum ex VAT); the Free and Starter plans cover Scribe and Chat only - Per-minute credit use means long calls cost more than on a flat per-call or unlimited plan - Three PMS integrations today (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase); other systems need a different workflow - No dental PMS integration (Dentally, EXACT, Software of Excellence) today ### 2. ViveoAI Best for: UK and Irish dental practices on Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei or Aerona wanting an AI receptionist priced per location with minute bundles Pricing: Per location per month: Core £349 (500 minutes, then £0.70/min), Professional £599 (1,000 minutes, then £0.60/min), Group & Multi-Site from £999 (1,500 pooled minutes, extra locations from £249, then £0.50/min). VAT not published. Read from viveoai.com/pricing, 10 Oct 2026. ViveoAI describes itself as built for UK and Ireland dental practices, and also lists opticians, aesthetics, audiology, physio, vet and medical clinics. It handles calls 24/7, including overflow and out-of-hours, books appointments with outcomes written into the PMS, hands calls to a person on request, routes emergencies and priority calls on the Professional plan, takes deposits and emails summaries. Voice, tone and regional accent can be tailored. The company is based in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, and is registered with the ICO. Its site says it is GDPR-compliant; for its demo line it says no audio recordings are kept and transcripts are kept for up to 30 days. It doesn't publish ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, UK hosting or a retention period for live calls. Strengths: - Integrates with Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei and Aerona - Built around dental call types, with emergency and priority routing on the Professional plan - Setup and onboarding included; 14-day live pilot - Group plan pools minutes across sites Limitations: - Higher per-minute cost: about 60p to 70p within the allowance - Priced per location, so multi-site costs scale with sites - VAT, ISO 27001, UK hosting and live-call retention not published - Receptionist only: no clinical notes ### How we chose Every fact about ViveoAI on this page was read from that vendor's own website, pricing page, help centre or vendor-supplied marketplace listing on 10 October 2026; the sources list below links each page. Where a vendor doesn't publish something (a price, VAT treatment, a certification, where data is hosted), we say "not published" instead of estimating it. Prices are quoted as the vendor states them; we haven't converted other currencies. Motics prices come from our own pricing page and are ex VAT. Motics is our product. Each product gets a review card: Motics with its strengths and limitations, and the other vendor with its published features and limitations. Vendors change prices and features, so check their pages before you buy. If you spot anything inaccurate, contact us and we'll correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Motics is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much does ViveoAI cost? ViveoAI's pricing page lists, per location per month: Core £349 with 500 minutes then £0.70 a minute; Professional £599 with 1,000 minutes then £0.60 a minute; Group and Multi-Site from £999 with 1,500 minutes pooled across the first two locations, extra locations from £249 and overage at £0.50 a minute. It doesn't say whether VAT is included. Checked 10 October 2026. ### Does Motics integrate with Dentally or Software of Excellence? No. Motics integrates with Cliniko, Nookal and Meddbase today. In a practice on Dentally, EXACT or Software of Excellence, the Phone Agent still answers calls 24/7, takes the patient's details, summarises the call and alerts your team, who then make the booking in the PMS. It can't write the booking straight into those systems. ### Which dental systems does ViveoAI support? ViveoAI lists Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei and Aerona. Its site doesn't name Software of Excellence. It notes that custom integration requirements may be quoted separately. ### Is Motics cheaper than ViveoAI per minute? On list prices, yes: Motics call time works out at roughly 33p to 42p a minute billed monthly, and less with the 15% annual discount, against about 60p to 70p within ViveoAI's bundles. ViveoAI prices per location; Motics sells shared credit packs with unlimited users, and the same credits cover clinical notes, email and billing. Use the calculator on [the pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) to model your practice. ### Can Motics write dental clinical notes? Yes. The Motics Scribe Agent drafts clinical notes, treatment plans and specialist referral letters from the appointment for the dentist to review and sign. It's available on the Free plan (25 credits a month), Starter (£19 a month ex VAT) and above, independently of the Phone Agent. ### Can I try Motics or ViveoAI for free? Motics has a free plan with 25 credits a month for Scribe and Chat, no card required, and paid plans have no contract. ViveoAI offers a 14-day live pilot of up to 100 minutes at one location, and says you pay nothing if you don't continue; its plans are cancel-anytime. ### Is an AI receptionist GDPR compliant for a dental practice? It can be, if the vendor processes data lawfully and you have a data processing agreement and DPIA in place. Ask where call audio and transcripts are stored, how long they're kept and who the sub-processors are. ViveoAI states it is GDPR-compliant and ICO-registered; Motics stores data in the UK under UK GDPR with security aligned to ISO 27001. ### Sources - [ViveoAI — pricing (per location, GBP) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://viveoai.com/pricing) - [ViveoAI — home page (features and integrations) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://viveoai.com/) - [ViveoAI — GDPR and AI receptionists in healthcare (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://viveoai.com/gdpr-ai-receptionists-healthcare) - [Motics — pricing (plans ex VAT) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/) - [Motics — Phone Agent (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/agents/phone/) - [Motics — integrations (Cliniko, Nookal, Meddbase) (fetched 10 Oct 2026)](https://www.motics.ai/integrations/) # UK compliance hub URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ ## Can a UK clinic use an AI scribe under UK GDPR? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/uk-gdpr-ai-scribes/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Yes, if you set it up properly. Consultation audio, transcripts and notes are health data, which UK GDPR treats as special category data. You need an Article 6 lawful basis plus an Article 9 condition, a data processing agreement with the vendor, an updated privacy notice and a DPIA completed before go-live. ### Why scribe data is special category data Everything an AI scribe touches is about a patient's health: the consultation audio, the transcript and the draft note. Under UK GDPR, health data is special category data. Processing it needs two things, not one: a lawful basis under Article 6 and a separate condition under Article 9. For clinical care the health or social care condition is the usual fit. Most clinics already rely on both for their clinical records. The real question is whether the AI processing fits within that existing purpose, and your [DPIA](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/) is where you record the answer. ### Controller and processor: who is responsible for what Your clinic is the data controller. It decides why and how patient data is processed. The scribe vendor is your processor and may only act on your documented instructions. UK GDPR Article 28 requires a written contract (the data processing agreement, or DPA) that sets out those instructions, confidentiality, security, sub-processors, help with patient rights requests, and what happens to the data at the end of the contract. If a vendor won't sign one, you cannot lawfully use it for patient data. ### Four things to have before go-live - A signed DPA with the vendor, including its current sub-processor list. - An updated privacy notice telling patients an AI tool is involved, what it does, where data is processed and how long it is kept. See [patient consent and transparency](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/patient-consent-ai-scribe/). - A record of the data flow: what is captured, where it is processed and stored, and what is deleted when. - A DPIA, completed before the first patient is recorded. ### Where clinics usually go wrong The common failures are not exotic. Clinicians use a free consumer app or a personal chatbot account with no DPA. Nobody asks where the AI model actually runs, so data quietly leaves the UK (see [UK data residency](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/uk-data-residency-ai/)). The contract allows the vendor to 'improve its services' with your data (see [AI training and retention](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ai-training-data-retention/)). Or audio is kept indefinitely because no one set a retention period. Each of these is fixable in writing before go-live, and very hard to fix afterwards. Accuracy is a data protection issue too. UK GDPR requires personal data to be accurate, so an AI draft that mishears a dose or invents a finding is a data quality problem as well as a clinical one. That is why clinician review before anything is filed is not optional. ### How Motics handles this - Motics acts as your data processor and your clinic stays the data controller. We sign a Data Processing Agreement that meets Article 28 requirements. - Motics is designed and operated to meet UK GDPR and EU GDPR. The current status of our GDPR controls and our sub-processor list are published on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Patient data is not used to train, fine-tune or improve AI models, ours or any sub-processor's. - Every AI-generated note is a draft. A clinician reviews and approves it before it is saved. - Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, and UK clinics' data is stored in the UK by default. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is consultation audio special category data under UK GDPR? Yes. Audio of a consultation, its transcript and the resulting note all reveal information about a patient's physical or mental health, which UK GDPR classes as special category data. Processing it needs an Article 6 lawful basis and an Article 9 condition, and attracts a higher bar for security and accountability. ### Does the patient's consent have to be our UK GDPR lawful basis? Not necessarily. Agreeing to be recorded and consent as a UK GDPR lawful basis are different things. Many clinics rely on another basis and the Article 9 health or social care condition for clinical records, while still telling patients about the recording and giving them a real choice to decline. Record your reasoning in your DPIA and take advice if you are unsure which basis applies to you. ### Is the clinic or the AI vendor the data controller? The clinic. You decide why patient data is processed and you remain responsible for it. The vendor is your processor and must only act on your documented instructions, set out in an Article 28 data processing agreement. A vendor that uses your data for its own purposes, such as training its models, risks becoming a controller for that processing. ### Can clinicians use a free consumer AI app to write notes? Not for patient data. A consumer app used without a data processing agreement, a DPIA or any record of where the data goes falls outside your clinic's governance. NHS England's ambient scribing guidance explicitly excludes tools used outside organisational oversight. Choose an approved tool and make it the only route. ### Does UK GDPR stop us using an AI vendor based outside the UK? No, but it adds work. Transfers outside the UK are lawful with appropriate safeguards, such as adequacy regulations or approved transfer clauses. Each transfer needs assessing and documenting, so many clinics prefer vendors that store and process data in the UK. See our page on UK data residency. ### What if the AI gets something wrong in the patient record? The clinician who files the note owns it. UK GDPR requires personal data to be accurate, and patients can ask for inaccurate data to be corrected. Clinician review before filing is the main control, backed by documentation audit to catch patterns of error. Sources: - [ICO: Special category data (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/special-category-data/) - [ICO: Contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/contracts-and-liabilities-between-controllers-and-processors-multi/) - [ICO: The right to be informed](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/the-right-to-be-informed/) - [ICO: Guidance on AI and data protection](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/guidance-on-ai-and-data-protection/) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) ## Do I need a DPIA before using AI in my clinic? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Almost certainly. UK GDPR requires a data protection impact assessment before processing that is likely to result in high risk. The ICO lists innovative technology such as AI as a risk indicator, alongside sensitive data like health records. An AI tool processing patient health data usually meets that bar, so complete the DPIA before go-live. ### When a DPIA is required Article 35 of UK GDPR requires a DPIA where processing is likely to result in a high risk to people's rights and freedoms, and it must be done before the processing starts. The ICO explains that large-scale use of special category data always needs one. It also lists innovative technologies, including AI, as a high-risk indicator that needs a DPIA when combined with another criterion, and sensitive data is one of those criteria. As a rule of thumb, two criteria together usually mean you need a DPIA. The ICO also notes that an individual doctor is not processing at large scale in the way a hospital is. Even so, AI plus health data already ticks two boxes for most clinics. NHS England's ambient scribing guidance and CQC's mythbuster 109 both expect a DPIA. If in doubt, do one: a proportionate DPIA is a few pages, and it is the document you will be asked for first. ### What goes in it - The processing: what the tool does, what data it captures (audio, transcript, note, call recording), who has access, and the data flow from capture to deletion. - Necessity and proportionality: why you need it, your lawful basis and Article 9 condition, and how you keep data to the minimum. - Risks to patients: errors entering the record, transfers outside the UK, the vendor training on patient data, excessive retention, unauthorised access, and patients not knowing or not being able to object. - Mitigations: clinician review, UK storage and processing, a no-training commitment in the DPA, deletion schedules, access controls, encryption, consent and patient information. - Sign-off: who approved the residual risk, including your data protection officer if you have one, and when it will be reviewed. ### Keep it current A DPIA is not a one-off. Revisit it when you add a new AI agent (a phone agent processes different data from a scribe), when the vendor changes sub-processors or hosting, or when an incident shows a risk you had not considered. If you identify a high risk you cannot reduce, UK GDPR requires you to consult the ICO before starting the processing. Our free [DPIA template for clinic AI](https://www.motics.ai/tools/dpia-template/) sets out these sections with prompts and example wording you can adapt. ### How Motics handles this - We sign a Data Processing Agreement that meets Article 28 requirements, and publish our sub-processor list on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Facts for your DPIA: UK clinics' data is stored in the UK by default, encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, and not used to train AI models. - Scribe audio is deleted within 48 hours, and transcript and note retention is set per clinic. Deleted data is made unrecoverable by destroying its encryption keys. - As your processor, we notify you without undue delay if we become aware of a personal data breach, with the detail you need for your own obligations. - Our DCB 0129 clinical safety case is available on request to support the clinical risk section. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is a DPIA a legal requirement for an AI scribe? UK GDPR requires one before any processing likely to result in high risk. AI processing of patient health data usually meets that test, and NHS England and CQC guidance both expect one. Treat it as required unless you have a documented reason why the risk is not high. ### I am a single-handed practitioner. Do I still need one? Probably. The ICO says an individual doctor is not processing at large scale, so that particular trigger may not apply. But AI is an innovative technology and health data is sensitive, and those two criteria together usually point to a DPIA. A short, proportionate one is quick to write. ### Who writes the DPIA, the clinic or the AI vendor? The clinic, as data controller. The vendor should give you the information you need, such as data flows, hosting, sub-processors, security controls and clinical safety evidence, but the assessment and the decision to proceed are yours. ### Can we just use the vendor's DPIA? Use it as an input, not a substitute. A vendor's document describes its product. Your DPIA has to cover your clinic: your patients, your consent process, your retention choices, who has access, and the risks in your setting. ### When should we update the DPIA? Before you add a new AI tool or agent, when the vendor changes hosting or sub-processors, when you change how the tool is used, and after any incident that reveals a new risk. Set a review date as well. ### What if the DPIA finds a high risk we cannot reduce? UK GDPR requires you to consult the ICO before starting the processing. In practice, most risks from clinic AI can be reduced with contractual commitments, technical controls and clinician review, which is why the DPIA is worth doing early. Sources: - [ICO: When do we need to do a DPIA?](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/data-protection-impact-assessments-dpias/when-do-we-need-to-do-a-dpia/) - [ICO: Data protection impact assessments](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/data-protection-impact-assessments-dpias/) - [ICO: Guidance on AI and data protection](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/guidance-on-ai-and-data-protection/) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) ## Does patient data have to stay in the UK when a clinic uses AI? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/uk-data-residency-ai/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. No law says patient data must stay in the UK. UK GDPR allows transfers abroad with safeguards such as adequacy regulations or approved transfer clauses. Keeping storage and AI processing in the UK removes that transfer risk and simplifies your DPIA, so ask vendors exactly where data is stored, processed and backed up, including AI model calls. ### What residency means Data residency means data is stored and processed on servers in a particular country, under that country's law. For a clinic it is shorthand for two questions: which country's laws and authorities can reach your patients' data, and whether you are making international transfers that need extra safeguards under UK GDPR. ### What UK GDPR actually requires UK GDPR restricts transfers of personal data outside the UK unless they are covered by adequacy regulations, appropriate safeguards such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to EU standard contractual clauses, or a limited exception. The UK recognises the EU and EEA as adequate, so EU hosting is generally straightforward. Transfers to other countries need a documented mechanism and, usually, a transfer risk assessment. ### Where hidden transfers happen - AI model calls: a vendor may store data in the UK but send audio or text to a model hosted elsewhere for transcription or summarisation. - Sub-processors: transcription engines, support tools and analytics services may sit in other countries. - Backups and disaster recovery copies in a different region. - Support access by staff based outside the UK. ### Questions to ask, in writing - Which region stores production data and backups? Name the region, not 'secure cloud'. - Where does AI inference happen, including any third-party models you call? - Which sub-processors are outside the UK, and under what transfer mechanism? - Is the storage location committed in the data processing agreement? - Will you tell us before changing hosting region or adding a sub-processor? The sub-processor list attached to the data processing agreement is where the real answer lives. Record what you find in your [DPIA](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/). ### How Motics handles this - Data is stored and processed in-country by default. For UK clinics that means the UK, with other regions available on request. - All backups remain within the same jurisdiction. - Cross-border transfers do not occur without appropriate safeguards and your authorisation, as set out in our Data Processing Agreement. - Motics is hosted on Google Cloud Platform data centres, which hold independent SOC 2 Type II certification. - Our current sub-processor list is published on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). ### Frequently asked questions ### Is UK data residency a legal requirement for patient data? No. UK GDPR permits international transfers with appropriate safeguards. Residency is a risk-reduction choice rather than a legal mandate, but it simplifies your DPIA, avoids reliance on transfer mechanisms, and is increasingly what patients and insurers expect for health data. ### Does using a US-hosted AI model break UK residency? It can. If the vendor sends your data to a model hosted abroad, the data has left the UK wherever the vendor's own servers are. Ask specifically where AI inference happens and which sub-processors are outside the UK. ### Is hosting in the EU acceptable? Generally yes. The UK has adequacy regulations covering the EU and EEA, so transfers there do not need extra transfer mechanisms. You should still record the location in your DPIA and privacy notice. ### What counts as an international transfer? Sending personal data to, or making it accessible by, an organisation in another country. That includes remote access by overseas support staff, not just storage. The ICO's international transfers guidance explains the tests. ### Where do we find out where a vendor really processes data? In the data processing agreement and its sub-processor list, not the marketing page. Ask for both, and for a commitment to notify you before hosting or sub-processors change. ### Do backups count? Yes. Backup and disaster recovery copies are personal data too. Ask which region holds them and whether that is committed in the contract. Sources: - [ICO: International transfers (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/international-transfers/) - [ICO: Contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/contracts-and-liabilities-between-controllers-and-processors-multi/) - [ICO: Special category data (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/special-category-data/) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) ## Can AI vendors train on our patient data, and how long should they keep it? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ai-training-data-retention/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Only if your contract allows it, and for patient data it should not. Training a vendor's models is a different purpose from delivering care, and a processor may only act on your documented instructions. Ask for an unqualified no-training commitment in the DPA, plus a written retention schedule for audio, transcripts and notes, with deletion on request. ### Why training is a contract question Your AI vendor is your processor. Under UK GDPR Article 28 it may only process patient data on your documented instructions. Using that data to train or improve its own models is a new purpose, outside what you engaged it to do, and the purpose limitation principle says data collected for one purpose should not be used for an incompatible one. A vendor that does it anyway risks becoming a controller in its own right. Watch the wording. 'We may use data to improve our services' can mean training. 'Opt-out available' means training is on unless someone remembers to switch it off. The answer you want is an unqualified no, covering audio, transcripts, notes and metadata, and covering the vendor's model providers as well as the vendor itself. ### Retention: three kinds of data, three answers - Audio: needed only until the transcript and draft exist. Short, automatic deletion is the norm to look for. - Transcripts: useful for checking a note if a question is raised, but not usually part of the clinical record. Decide a period and write it into your privacy notice. - Approved notes: part of the clinical record, kept under your normal record retention schedule, usually in your patient management system. UK GDPR's storage limitation principle says personal data should be kept no longer than necessary, and NHS England's ambient scribing guidance asks organisations to define how long audio, transcripts and outputs are kept. Write the answers down in your [DPIA](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/). ### Deletion you can rely on - How is data deleted, and does deletion reach backups? - Will you confirm deletion in writing when we or a patient ask? - What happens to our data when we cancel, and how long do we have to export it? - Is all of this in the data processing agreement? ### How Motics handles this - Patient data is not used to train, fine-tune or improve any AI model, ours or any sub-processor's. Contractual agreements with all sub-processors prohibit any other use. - AI models run in isolated, temporary environments, and input data is discarded after each request. - Scribe audio is deleted within 48 hours. Transcript and note retention is configurable per clinic, with no minimum retention period. - Deletion destroys the data's encryption keys, making it permanently unrecoverable. We process erasure requests under GDPR Article 17 and confirm in writing. - You can export your data at any time. On termination there is a reasonable retrieval period before deletion, as set out in our Data Processing Agreement. ### Frequently asked questions ### Can an AI vendor train on our data if it is anonymised? Truly anonymous data falls outside UK GDPR, but anonymising consultation audio and clinical text is hard, and the anonymising step is itself processing of patient data. Ask for a no-training commitment that covers anonymised and derived data too, so there is nothing to argue about. ### Is an opt-out from model training good enough? It is weaker than a default of no training. An opt-out depends on someone switching it off, and on that setting surviving product changes. For patient data, ask for no training as the contractual default. ### How long should an AI scribe keep consultation audio? Only as long as it needs to produce and check the draft. Many vendors delete audio within days. Whatever the period, it should be fixed, written into the DPA and stated in your privacy notice. ### Is the transcript part of the medical record? That is your decision as controller. Most clinics treat the approved note as the record and the transcript as supporting data with a shorter retention period. Decide, write it in your policy and privacy notice, and apply it consistently. ### What happens to our data if we cancel? Your data processing agreement should say. Look for a defined export window, deletion at the end of it including backups, and written confirmation. If the contract is silent, ask before you sign. ### Do the vendor's AI model providers count? Yes. If your vendor sends data to a third-party model, that provider is a sub-processor. The no-training commitment and retention limits need to flow down to it, and it should appear on the sub-processor list. Sources: - [ICO: Contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/contracts-and-liabilities-between-controllers-and-processors-multi/) - [ICO: Principle (b), purpose limitation](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-protection-principles/a-guide-to-the-data-protection-principles/purpose-limitation/) - [ICO: Principle (e), storage limitation](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-protection-principles/a-guide-to-the-data-protection-principles/storage-limitation/) - [ICO: Guidance on AI and data protection](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/guidance-on-ai-and-data-protection/) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) ## What are DCB0129 and DCB0160, and do they apply to my clinic? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dcb0129-dcb0160-clinical-safety/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. They are NHS clinical risk management standards for health IT, published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. DCB0129 applies to manufacturers, who must run clinical risk management and keep a safety case. DCB0160 applies to organisations deploying the system, who need a clinical safety officer, a hazard log and a safety case for local use. ### Two halves of one chain The standards are designed to work together. DCB0129 requires the manufacturer of a health IT system to run a clinical risk management process, appoint a clinical safety officer and keep a clinical safety case and hazard log for the product. DCB0160 requires the organisation deploying that system to do the same for its own use of it: assess the hazards in its setting, check the manufacturer complies with DCB0129, and document a safety case before go-live and as things change. ### Do they apply to a private clinic? The standards are mandated for health IT used in NHS and publicly funded care in England. A purely private clinic is not formally bound by them. In practice they are still the expected approach. CQC's GP mythbuster 109 tells GP services to procure AI against DCB0160 and keep a hazard log, and NHS England's ambient scribing guidance tells adopters to complete DCB0160 documentation. If an inspector, insurer or NHS partner asks how you assessed the clinical risk of an AI tool, a short DCB0160-style safety case is the clearest answer. ### What DCB0160 looks like in a small clinic - A clinical safety officer: CQC describes a senior clinician with current professional registration and practitioner-level digital clinical safety training. In most small clinics this is the clinical lead. - The vendor's DCB0129 evidence: its clinical safety case report and hazard log, reviewed by your clinical safety officer. - Your hazard log: the ways the tool could harm a patient in your setting, how likely and severe each is, and what controls you rely on. - A clinical safety case report: a short document concluding whether the residual risk is acceptable, signed off before go-live. - Monitoring: incident reporting, periodic documentation audit, and a review when the product or your use of it changes. ### Starter hazards for an AI scribe - Mis-transcribed drug name, dose or laterality reaches the record. - Content that was not said (a fabricated finding) appears in the draft. - A relevant negative or safety-netting advice is omitted. - A note is attached to the wrong patient. - The clinician approves the draft without reading it. - Performance is worse for some accents, dialects or interpreters. - The service is unavailable mid-clinic. The main control for most of these is the same: a clinician reviews and edits every draft before it is filed. Others need specific mitigations, such as a fallback to typing or dictation during outages and audit of a sample of notes against the audio. NHS England's guidance also warns that generative AI products may add functions over time, so review the hazard log when the vendor ships new features. ### Medical device status Whether an AI tool is a medical device depends on the manufacturer's stated intended purpose. NHS England's guidance asks adopters to confirm the product has been correctly assessed and, where applicable, registered with the MHRA. Ask the vendor for its classification and registration evidence. ### How Motics handles this - Motics Scribe Agent is a Class I medical device under UK MDR. - Our clinical safety documentation, including our DCB 0129 clinical safety case, is available on request for your clinical safety officer to review. - Motics has been assessed against DTAC, which includes clinical safety. Evidence is on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Scribe Agent produces draft outputs for clinician review. It does not autonomously diagnose, recommend treatment or make clinical decisions, and every output needs clinician approval before use. ### Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between DCB0129 and DCB0160? DCB0129 is for the manufacturer of a health IT system and covers how it manages clinical risk while building and maintaining the product. DCB0160 is for the organisation that deploys and uses it, and covers the clinical risk of using that product in its own setting. ### Does my private clinic legally need DCB0160? The standards are mandated for NHS and publicly funded care in England, so a purely private clinic is not formally bound. CQC and NHS England guidance both expect DCB0160-style clinical risk management for AI tools, so most clinics benefit from doing a proportionate version. If you deliver NHS-funded care, take advice on whether it applies directly. ### Who can be our clinical safety officer? A senior clinician with current professional registration who has completed training in digital clinical safety. CQC's mythbuster 109 describes practitioner-level training. In a small clinic this is usually the clinical lead or owner. ### What goes in a hazard log for an AI scribe? Each way the tool could cause harm in your clinic, such as a mis-transcribed dose, fabricated content, an omitted safety-netting statement or a note attached to the wrong patient. For each hazard, record its likelihood and severity, the controls you rely on, and the residual risk. ### What should we ask the AI vendor for? Its DCB0129 clinical safety case report and hazard log, the name of its clinical safety officer, its medical device classification and MHRA registration where applicable, and how it tells customers about changes that could affect clinical safety. ### Do we need to update our safety case when the product changes? Yes. Review the hazard log whenever the vendor adds features or you change how you use the tool. NHS England's guidance notes that generative AI products may add functions over time, sometimes unintentionally. Sources: - [NHS England: DCB0129 Clinical Risk Management, its application in the manufacture of health IT systems](https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-standards/governance/latest-activity/standards-and-collections/dcb0129-clinical-risk-management-its-application-in-the-manufacture-of-health-it-systems) - [NHS England: DCB0160 Clinical Risk Management, its application in the deployment and use of health IT systems](https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-standards/information-standards-and-data-collections-including-extractions/publications-and-notifications/standards-and-collections/dcb0160-clinical-risk-management-its-application-in-the-deployment-and-use-of-health-it-systems) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) - [CQC: GP mythbuster 109, Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in GP services](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/gps/gp-mythbusters/gp-mythbuster-109-artificial-intelligence-gp-services) ## Do clinic AI tools need DTAC and DSPT? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dtac-dspt/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Not by law for a purely private clinic. DTAC is the framework NHS buyers use to assess digital health products, and the DSPT is the annual data security self-assessment for organisations with access to NHS patient data or systems. Both still matter: DTAC evidence answers most vendor due-diligence questions, and the DSPT applies once you handle NHS data. ### DTAC: a buyer's framework, not a certificate The Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) is NHS England's baseline assessment for digital health technologies. It covers clinical safety, data protection, technical security, interoperability, and usability and accessibility. NHS organisations use it to assure products they buy. It is not a certificate that a vendor 'holds': the buying organisation assesses the product against evidence the vendor supplies, such as its DCB0129 clinical safety case, data protection documentation and security testing. For a private clinic, DTAC is not a legal requirement. It is still useful. A vendor with a completed DTAC evidence pack has already answered, in writing, most of the questions you would otherwise ask one by one. NHS England's ambient scribing supplier registry also expects suppliers to have completed DTAC. ### DSPT: required once you touch NHS data The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) is an annual online self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's data security standards. Organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems must complete it every year. Common triggers for a private clinic are NHS contracts, shared NHS records and NHSmail. A fully private clinic with no NHS data flows is not required to complete it. DSPT results are published. You can look up any organisation on the DSPT website and check the year and whether standards were met. Because it is annual, a vendor's DSPT claim only means something with a current year attached. ### What to ask a vendor - Can you share your DTAC evidence pack, including your DCB0129 clinical safety case? - What is your current-year DSPT status, and under which organisation name is it published? - Do you hold Cyber Essentials? NHS England's ambient scribing guidance asks adopters to check DSPT and Cyber Essentials alongside UK GDPR. - Which ISO 27001 scope applies, and is it certified or aligned? - Which of these commitments are written into the data processing agreement? Frameworks are necessary but not sufficient. A certificate does not bind a vendor's behaviour; a contract does. Pair DTAC and DSPT evidence with written answers on [data residency](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/uk-data-residency-ai/), [model training and retention](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ai-training-data-retention/). ### How Motics handles this - Motics has been assessed against DTAC, covering clinical safety (DCB 0129), data protection, technical security and interoperability. Assessment evidence and clinical safety documentation are on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Our Information Security Management System is aligned to ISO 27001:2022, with over 100 security controls monitored continuously and reported on the Trust Centre. - Independent penetration testing is carried out annually, and dependencies are scanned continuously for known vulnerabilities. - If your deployment involves NHS data, ask our team for our current DSPT position as part of your due diligence. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do private clinics need DTAC? No. DTAC is an NHS procurement framework, not a legal requirement for private practice. Its five areas map closely onto the risks a private clinic carries anyway, which is why many practice owners use it as a free vendor checklist. ### Is DTAC a certification a vendor can hold? Not exactly. DTAC is assessed by the buying organisation against evidence the vendor supplies, rather than awarded centrally. A credible vendor keeps a completed DTAC evidence pack and shares it on request. Treat reluctance to share one as a warning sign. ### Does my clinic need to complete the DSPT? Only if you have access to NHS patient data or systems. NHS contracts, shared NHS records and NHSmail are the usual triggers. A fully private clinic with no NHS data flows is not required to, though some complete it voluntarily. ### How do I check a vendor's DSPT status? Search the organisation on the public DSPT website. It shows the assessment year and whether standards were met. Check the entry is current, because the toolkit is renewed every year and an old entry means the cycle has lapsed. ### What does it mean when a vendor says it is 'DTAC compliant'? Usually that it has completed the DTAC questions and can supply the evidence. Ask for the evidence pack itself, including the DCB0129 clinical safety case, rather than relying on the phrase. ### Is DTAC enough on its own to choose a vendor? No. DTAC tells you the vendor has thought about clinical safety, data protection and security. You still need contractual answers: a data processing agreement, a no-training commitment, where data is stored and processed, and a retention and deletion schedule. Sources: - [NHS England: Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC)](https://digital.nhs.uk/services/digital-technology-assessment-criteria-dtac) - [NHS: Data Security and Protection Toolkit](https://www.dsptoolkit.nhs.uk/) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) - [CQC: GP mythbuster 109, Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in GP services](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/gps/gp-mythbusters/gp-mythbuster-109-artificial-intelligence-gp-services) ## What does NHS England's guidance on ambient voice technology say? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/nhs-ambient-voice-technology-guidance/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. NHS England's guidance on AI-enabled ambient scribing products (version 3, updated 29 July 2026) tells adopting organisations to appoint a clinical safety officer, complete DCB0160, run a DPIA, confirm medical device status, make sure users review outputs before acting on them, tell patients, set retention periods and monitor accuracy. ### Who the guidance is for The guidance is for health and care settings in England adopting an ambient scribing product, or a new function in one. It is written mainly for chief information officers and chief clinical information officers, with a technical appendix for product teams. It does not cover individuals using tools outside their organisation's oversight. Private clinics are not bound by it, but it is the most detailed public checklist for adopting an AI scribe in the UK. ### The steps it expects - Clinical safety: assign a clinical safety officer, identify technical and clinical risks, and complete DCB0160 documentation, including a safety case, hazard log and monitoring plan. Get the supplier's DCB0129 evidence. See [DCB0129 and DCB0160](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dcb0129-dcb0160-clinical-safety/). - Data protection: complete a DPIA, involving information governance early. See [DPIA for clinic AI](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/). - Medical device status: confirm the product has been correctly assessed under medical device regulation and is registered with the MHRA where applicable. Status depends on the manufacturer's intended purpose. - Human review: users review and approve outputs before any further action, are trained on approved use, and remain responsible for what they approve. - Patient information: explain what is recorded, what the output is, who uses it and how it is stored. Update privacy notices and inform patients before processing so they can object. See [patient consent and transparency](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/patient-consent-ai-scribe/). - Retention and security: define how long audio, transcripts and outputs are kept, confirm where data is stored, and check UK GDPR, DSPT and Cyber Essentials. - Integration: integrate with the electronic patient record rather than relying on copy and paste. - Monitoring: audit documentation accuracy, review incidents and performance, and check for bias, including performance across accents and dialects. ### Pilots and liability Pilots should last no more than four months, and running a pilot does not exempt a supplier from compliance. The guidance also asks organisations to involve legal teams early and make sure contracts clearly set out what the supplier and the organisation are each responsible for. ### The AVT supplier registry Alongside the guidance, NHS England runs a self-certified registry of ambient scribing suppliers, with supporting evidence to help local procurement. It sets supplier expectations including DTAC completion, MHRA registration where applicable, integration capability and performance monitoring. It is not a commercial framework: NHS England only checks that submissions are complete and does not endorse listed suppliers. Each organisation still runs its own assurance. ### How Motics handles this - Motics Scribe Agent is a Class I medical device under UK MDR, and our DCB 0129 clinical safety case is available on request. - Motics has been assessed against DTAC. Evidence is on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Every note is a draft that the clinician reviews and approves before it is saved. - Audio is deleted within 48 hours. Transcript and note retention is set per clinic. - Approved notes save to the patient record in Cliniko, Nookal or Meddbase, so there is no copy and paste. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does NHS England's ambient scribing guidance apply to private clinics? Not formally. It is written for health and care settings in England adopting these products, particularly NHS organisations. Private clinics are not bound by it, but it is the most detailed published checklist for adopting an AI scribe safely, and following it puts you in a strong position with inspectors, insurers and NHS partners. ### What is the AVT supplier registry? A national, self-certified registry of ambient voice technology suppliers run by NHS England, with supporting evidence to help organisations with procurement and assurance. Suppliers are expected to have completed DTAC and to hold MHRA registration where applicable. ### Does being on the registry mean a product is NHS approved? No. NHS England only checks that submissions are complete, and it does not endorse listed suppliers. The registry is not a commercial framework. Each organisation still has to do its own assurance, including DCB0160 and a DPIA. ### Does the guidance require patient consent for ambient scribing? It asks organisations to check their legal basis and whether consent is needed, to explain to patients what is recorded and how it is used, to update privacy notices, and to inform patients before processing so they can object. In practice most clinics tell patients and ask before recording. ### How long can an ambient scribe pilot run? The guidance says pilots should last no more than four months, and that running a pilot or proof of concept does not exempt a supplier from compliance. ### Does the guidance set a retention period for audio and transcripts? No fixed period. It asks organisations to define how long audio, transcripts, user interactions and outputs are kept for review, monitoring and audit, and to confirm where data is stored and shared. ### Does the guidance say AI scribes are medical devices? It does not decide which products are medical devices. Status depends on the manufacturer's stated intended purpose. The guidance asks organisations to confirm the product has been correctly assessed and registered with the MHRA where applicable. Sources: - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products in health and care settings](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) - [NHS England: DCB0160 Clinical Risk Management, its application in the deployment and use of health IT systems](https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-standards/information-standards-and-data-collections-including-extractions/publications-and-notifications/standards-and-collections/dcb0160-clinical-risk-management-its-application-in-the-deployment-and-use-of-health-it-systems) - [NHS England: Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC)](https://digital.nhs.uk/services/digital-technology-assessment-criteria-dtac) - [ICO: When do we need to do a DPIA?](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/data-protection-impact-assessments-dpias/when-do-we-need-to-do-a-dpia/) ## What does CQC expect when a clinic uses AI? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/cqc-ai-regulation-17/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. CQC has no AI-specific regulation. It judges AI tools against the rules that already apply, chiefly Regulation 17 (good governance). For GP services, mythbuster 109 lists what inspectors look for: evidence-based procurement, clinical risk management under DCB0160, a clinical safety officer, data protection, human oversight of outputs, staff training and ongoing monitoring. ### Regulation 17 is the anchor Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires registered providers to keep an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record for each person, and to operate systems that assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. An AI scribe or receptionist is part of those systems. Inspectors will not ask whether you use AI. They will ask whether you can show it is governed: chosen on evidence, risk-assessed, overseen by people, and monitored. ### What GP mythbuster 109 asks for CQC's GP mythbuster 109, 'Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in GP services', is the clearest statement of what inspectors check. In summary: - Procurement against standards: evidence that tools meet DCB0160, DTAC and MHRA registration where it applies. Tools from an NHS procurement list still need checking against their intended purpose. - Clinical risk management: under DCB0160, confirm the developer complies with DCB0129 and carry out your own clinical risk assessment. See [DCB0129 and DCB0160](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dcb0129-dcb0160-clinical-safety/). - Named roles: a clinical safety officer with current professional registration and digital clinical safety training, and a named digital lead for AI governance. - A hazard log and documented risk assessments covering AI tools. - Human oversight: evidence that AI is a support tool and not a replacement for human oversight, from audits, incident logs or quality improvement work. - Learning from errors: a way to report and investigate errors, including to the developer and through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. - Data protection: records of how suppliers handle data, including DPIAs and DSPT. - Telling patients: people should know you are using AI and be able to object. See [patient consent and transparency](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/patient-consent-ai-scribe/). - Training, access and bias: trained staff, a non-digital route to care, and assurance that bias against particular groups is mitigated. ### Not a GP practice? Use it anyway Mythbuster 109 is written for GP services, but it is the most specific published statement of how CQC thinks about AI governance. For other CQC-registered clinics it is a sensible checklist to work through before inspection. Many physiotherapy and therapy practices are not CQC-registered at all. For them, Regulation 17's record standard is still the benchmark that professional bodies and insurers expect. ### What to have on file - A short AI policy naming which tools touch patient records, who approved them and why. - Your DPIA and the vendor's DPA. See [DPIA for clinic AI](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/). - The vendor's clinical safety evidence (DCB0129) and your hazard log. - Your consent and patient information wording, and the privacy notice. - Evidence of review: documentation audits, incidents logged and acted on, staff training records. ### How Motics handles this - AI-generated outputs (clinical notes, codes, letter drafts) are drafts. A clinician reviews and approves them before use. Motics assists; it does not decide. - Motics Scribe Agent is a Class I medical device under UK MDR. Our DCB 0129 clinical safety case is available on request to support your DCB0160 work. - Motics has been assessed against the NHS Digital Technology Assessment Criteria. Assessment evidence and clinical safety documentation are on our [Trust Centre](https://trust.motics.ai). - Every data access event is logged with who, what, when and from where, and audit logs are available to your compliance team. - Audit Agent reviews clinical documentation against your standards across every note rather than a sample, which supports the 'assess and monitor' duty in Regulation 17. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does CQC allow clinics to use AI scribes? Yes. CQC does not prohibit AI tools. It says it encourages innovative technology, including AI, where it benefits people, and it assesses AI through the regulations that already apply. What it expects to see is governance: evidence-based procurement, risk assessment, human oversight and monitoring. ### Is GP mythbuster 109 a legal requirement? No. Mythbusters are CQC guidance that explain how inspectors interpret the regulations. The legal requirements are the regulations themselves, chiefly Regulation 17. In practice, mythbuster 109 tells you what evidence an inspector will look for when you use AI in a GP service. ### Does mythbuster 109 apply to my private physiotherapy clinic? It is written for GP services, so it does not apply directly. If your clinic is CQC-registered, it is still the best available checklist for AI governance. If you are not CQC-registered, Regulation 17 does not apply to you, but the same record-keeping standards are what professional bodies and insurers expect. ### Who should be our clinical safety officer? CQC's mythbuster describes a senior clinician with current professional registration and practitioner-level training in digital clinical safety. In a small clinic this is usually the clinical lead or owner. Their job is to own the hazard log and the clinical risk assessment for each AI tool. ### What evidence of human oversight will an inspector accept? Mythbuster 109 points to audits, incident logs and quality improvement work. Practical examples: a sample or full documentation audit showing clinicians correct AI drafts, a log of AI-related incidents and what changed, and a written rule that no AI output is filed without clinician approval. ### Does CQC require patient consent for AI scribes? CQC's mythbuster says the type of consent depends on the technology. For AI scribes used for individual care, implied consent may be appropriate, but you must tell people you are using them and give them the option to object. Many clinics also ask in person at the start of each session. ### Does using AI change who is responsible for the record? No. The clinician who files a note is responsible for it whoever drafted the first version, and the registered provider is responsible for the systems around it. That is why clinician review of every AI output is a governance requirement, not a nice-to-have. Sources: - [CQC: GP mythbuster 109, Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in GP services](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/gps/gp-mythbusters/gp-mythbuster-109-artificial-intelligence-gp-services) - [CQC: Regulation 17, Good governance](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-17) - [CQC: Artificial intelligence in health and social care, CQC's role, expectations and plans](https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/transparency/artificial-intelligence-health-social-care-cqcs-role-expectations-plans) - [NHS England: DCB0160 Clinical Risk Management, its application in the deployment and use of health IT systems](https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-standards/information-standards-and-data-collections-including-extractions/publications-and-notifications/standards-and-collections/dcb0160-clinical-risk-management-its-application-in-the-deployment-and-use-of-health-it-systems) ## Do patients need to consent to an AI scribe, and what should we tell them? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/patient-consent-ai-scribe/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Tell every patient before recording: that an AI tool will listen and draft the note, what happens to the audio, and that they can say no without affecting their care. Record their agreement in the note. Back this up with an updated privacy notice and signage, and use dictation when a patient declines or lacks capacity. ### Two different kinds of consent 'Consent' means two things here. One is the patient's agreement to having the consultation recorded and drafted by AI. The other is consent as a lawful basis under UK GDPR, which many clinics do not rely on for clinical records. CQC's GP mythbuster 109 says the type of consent depends on the technology: for AI scribes used for individual care, implied consent may be appropriate, but you must tell people you are using them, and transparency and the option to object are key. NHS England's ambient scribing guidance similarly asks you to inform patients before processing so they can object. Whatever your legal basis, the safest practice is simple: ask at the start of each session, in plain words, and write down the answer. It costs ten seconds and it is the evidence an inspector or complaint handler will look for. ### What to tell patients - An AI tool will listen to the consultation and draft the clinical note. - Your clinician checks and edits the note before it is saved. - Where the audio is processed and how long it is kept. - That the information is not used to train AI models (if that is true of your vendor). - That they can say no, or ask you to stop at any point, and it will not affect their care. ### Signage and the privacy notice Signage tells patients before they walk in; it does not replace asking. A waiting-room or booking-confirmation line might read: 'Some of our clinicians use an AI assistant to help write clinical notes. Your clinician will ask before using it, and you can say no. Ask us or see our privacy notice for details.' Your privacy notice should name the tool's purpose, the processor, where data is processed, retention periods and how to object. Our free [AI privacy notice builder](https://www.motics.ai/tools/ai-privacy-notice-builder/) drafts this section for you. ### When a patient declines or lacks capacity Declining must be a real option. If a patient says no, the clinician writes or dictates the note after the session, with no patient audio captured. The harder case is a patient who may lack capacity to decide about recording. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 requires capacity to be assumed unless shown otherwise and assessed decision by decision, and any decision for someone who lacks capacity must be in their best interests and the least restrictive option. For most clinics the practical policy is: record only with the patient's own informed agreement, and use dictation otherwise. ### How Motics handles this - Motics Scribe Agent supports dictation as well as ambient capture, so you can document without recording a patient who declines or may lack capacity. - Scribe audio is deleted within 48 hours, and patient data is not used to train AI models. - The clinician reviews and approves every note before it is saved. - We recommend asking in person at the start of each session, publishing your AI use in your privacy notice, and never recording a patient who may lack capacity. - Our free [AI privacy notice builder](https://www.motics.ai/tools/ai-privacy-notice-builder/) drafts the patient-facing wording, with Motics' published commitments filled in if you use Motics. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do we need written consent to use an AI scribe? No signature is required. Verbal agreement at the start of the session, documented in the note, is the common standard and mirrors how consent to examination is usually recorded. What matters is that the patient understood and had a real choice. ### Is implied consent enough? CQC's mythbuster 109 says implied consent may be appropriate for AI scribes used for individual care, provided you tell people you are using them and they can object. Asking explicitly each session is still the stronger position and is easy to evidence. ### What should a waiting-room sign say? Keep it short: that some clinicians use an AI assistant to help write notes, that the clinician will ask first, that patients can say no, and where to find more detail. Signage supports the conversation in the room; it does not replace it. ### What happens if a patient says no? Nothing changes about their care. The clinician writes or dictates the note after the session without recording the patient. Record that the patient declined so colleagues know for future visits. ### Can we use an AI scribe with a patient who lacks capacity? Not by default. Under the Mental Capacity Act, any decision for someone who lacks capacity must be in their best interests and the least restrictive option, and an audio recording is rarely necessary when dictation produces the same note. The simplest policy is to use dictation in these cases. ### Do we need to update our privacy notice? Yes. UK GDPR's right to be informed means your privacy notice should explain that you use AI tools, what they do, who the processor is, where data is processed, how long it is kept and how patients can object. Update it before go-live and whenever you add a new AI tool. ### Can a patient ask to see the transcript or have the audio deleted? Patients have the right to access personal data you hold about them, which includes transcripts or audio while they are retained. Erasure requests are assessed case by case, because clinical records are subject to retention obligations. Short audio retention makes both questions simpler. Sources: - [CQC: GP mythbuster 109, Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in GP services](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/gps/gp-mythbusters/gp-mythbuster-109-artificial-intelligence-gp-services) - [NHS England: Guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products](https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-the-use-of-ai-enabled-ambient-scribing-products-in-health-and-care-settings/) - [ICO: The right to be informed](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/the-right-to-be-informed/) - [ICO: Consent (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/consent/) - [Mental Capacity Act 2005, legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/contents) ## Can an AI phone agent record and transcribe patient calls in the UK? URL: https://www.motics.ai/compliance/ai-phone-agent-call-recording/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-10. Yes, provided callers are told. UK law lets a business record calls on its own system for purposes such as establishing facts and checking standards, if it makes all reasonable efforts to tell callers. UK GDPR then requires a lawful basis, privacy information and retention limits. PECR matters if the agent makes automated marketing calls, which need specific prior consent. ### The interception rules: tell callers Recording calls is interception of communications, which the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 controls. Section 46 and the Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018 allow a business to record communications on its own system without each caller's consent, for listed purposes. These include establishing the existence of facts, checking compliance with regulatory rules, and checking the standards of staff using the system. A key condition is that the business has made all reasonable efforts to inform every person who may use the system that their communications may be intercepted. In practice that means a clear message at the start of the call, plus a line in your privacy notice and on your website. Apply the same rule to staff: tell your team which lines are recorded. ### UK GDPR: recordings are patient data A call recording and transcript are personal data, and when a patient describes symptoms they are health data too, which makes them special category data. You need a lawful basis and an Article 9 condition, privacy information that explains the recording and why, a defined retention period, and a process for patients who ask for a copy. Cover the phone agent in your [DPIA](https://www.motics.ai/compliance/dpia-for-clinic-ai/); it processes different data from a scribe. ### Saying it is an AI UK GDPR's transparency principle means callers should not be misled about how their information is handled, and the ICO's AI guidance treats transparency as central. Telling callers at the start that they are speaking to an AI assistant, that the call is recorded, and how to reach a person is the simplest way to meet both expectations and avoid complaints. ### Where PECR comes in The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) mainly govern electronic marketing. Answering a patient's call and booking an appointment is not marketing. If you ever use an AI agent to make outbound marketing calls, the ICO is clear that automated marketing calls need the person's specific prior consent to that type of call, and all automated calls must give your name and a contact address or freephone number. ### Safety: when the AI should hand over This is not a legal rule, but it belongs in your risk assessment. Decide which calls must go straight to a person, such as urgent clinical concerns, safeguarding, distress or complaints, and test that the agent hands them over reliably. ### How Motics handles this - Every call answered by Phone Agent is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so you know exactly what happened on each call. - Calls transfer to your team under rules you set, such as urgent medical concerns or specific requests. - Recordings and transcripts are stored in-country by default (the UK for UK clinics) and encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit. - Call data is not used to train AI models, ours or any sub-processor's. - Every access to recordings is logged with who, what and when, and retention is configurable per clinic. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do we need each caller's consent to record calls? Not under the interception rules, if the recording is for a permitted purpose and you have made all reasonable efforts to tell callers. You still need a UK GDPR lawful basis, which does not have to be consent, and you must explain the recording in your privacy information. ### What should the AI agent say at the start of a call? Something like: 'You're through to the clinic's AI assistant. This call is recorded and transcribed so we can help you and keep accurate records. You can ask to speak to a member of staff at any time.' Keep it short and before any patient detail is shared. ### Do we have to tell callers they are speaking to an AI? Telling callers is the safest course. UK GDPR requires you to be transparent about how personal data is processed, and the ICO treats transparency as central to AI. Callers who discover later that they were speaking to an AI are more likely to complain. ### Does PECR apply to an AI receptionist? Mostly not for inbound calls. PECR mainly governs electronic marketing. It matters if the agent makes outbound marketing calls: automated marketing calls need the person's specific prior consent, and every automated call must give your name and contact details. ### Can a patient ask for a copy of their call recording? Yes. A recording or transcript that identifies the caller is their personal data, so it falls within the right of access while you hold it. Know where recordings are kept and how to retrieve one quickly. ### How long should we keep call recordings? Only as long as you need them for the purpose you gave callers, such as resolving queries or complaints. Set a period, write it into your privacy notice and DPIA, and make sure the vendor deletes on schedule. ### Does recording calls affect our staff? Yes. Staff who use recorded lines should be told, and your staff privacy notice should cover it. The same reasonable-efforts duty to inform applies to everyone who may use the system. Sources: - [Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/356/contents/made) - [The 2018 Regulations, regulation 4: the duty to inform users](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/356/regulation/4/made) - [Investigatory Powers Act 2016, section 46](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/section/46) - [ICO: What are PECR?](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/what-are-pecr/) - [ICO: Telephone marketing (PECR)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/telephone-marketing/) - [ICO: The right to be informed](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/the-right-to-be-informed/) - [ICO: Special category data (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/special-category-data/) ## DPIA template for clinic AI URL: https://www.motics.ai/tools/dpia-template/ DATA PROTECTION IMPACT ASSESSMENT: AI TOOLS IN A UK CLINIC Template version 2026-10-14, from https://www.motics.ai/tools/dpia-template/ Replace everything in [square brackets]. This template follows the ICO's DPIA steps. It is a practical starting point, not legal advice: adapt it to your clinic and take advice where you are unsure. Clinic: [clinic name] AI tool and vendor: [tool name], [vendor] Completed by: [name, role] Date: [date] 1. WHY A DPIA IS NEEDED Explain what the project is and why it needs a DPIA. For clinic AI the usual reasons are innovative technology combined with special category health data. - What AI tool are you introducing, and what will it do? Answer: [ ] - Which ICO high-risk indicators apply (innovative technology, special category data, large scale, vulnerable people)? Answer: [ ] Example wording: [Clinic name] plans to use [tool name], provided by [vendor], to [draft clinical notes from consultations / answer and record patient phone calls] for clinician or staff review. The processing uses innovative technology (AI) and special category health data, so we have completed this DPIA before go-live. 2. DESCRIBE THE PROCESSING Set out the nature, scope, context and purpose of the processing, including the full data flow from capture to deletion. - What data is captured (audio, transcripts, draft notes, call recordings, metadata)? Answer: [ ] - Whose data is it (patients, carers, staff, callers)? Roughly how many people a month? Answer: [ ] - Where is each type of data processed and stored, including AI model providers and backups? Answer: [ ] - Who can access it, at the clinic and at the vendor? Answer: [ ] - How long is each type of data kept, and how is it deleted? Answer: [ ] - What is the purpose, and what benefit do patients and the clinic get? Answer: [ ] Example wording: Audio is captured on [device] with the patient's agreement, sent encrypted to [vendor] and processed in [country/region] to produce a transcript and draft note. The clinician reviews and edits the draft before saving it to [patient management system]. Audio is deleted after [period]; transcripts after [period]; approved notes follow our clinical record retention schedule. Sub-processors are listed in the vendor's data processing agreement dated [date]. 3. CONSULTATION Record who you asked for views: clinicians, reception staff, your data protection officer, the vendor, and where appropriate patients. - Who did you consult, when, and what did they raise? Answer: [ ] - What information did the vendor provide (DPA, sub-processor list, security and clinical safety evidence)? Answer: [ ] Example wording: We consulted [clinical lead], [practice manager] and [DPO or adviser] on [date]. [Vendor] supplied its data processing agreement, sub-processor list, security documentation and clinical safety evidence. 4. NECESSITY AND PROPORTIONALITY Show that the processing is necessary for the purpose and that you keep it to the minimum. - What is your UK GDPR Article 6 lawful basis and Article 9 condition? Answer: [ ] - Could you achieve the purpose with less data, or without recording (for example dictation)? Answer: [ ] - How will you tell patients and let them object? (Privacy notice, signage, asking in the room.) Answer: [ ] - How will you handle access, correction and erasure requests? Answer: [ ] - Does the vendor act only on your documented instructions, with no use of data for its own purposes such as model training? Answer: [ ] - Are any transfers outside the UK covered by an appropriate safeguard? Answer: [ ] Example wording: Lawful basis: [Article 6 basis]. Article 9 condition: [condition, for example health or social care]. Patients are told before recording and can decline at no cost to their care; clinicians use dictation instead. Our privacy notice was updated on [date]. The vendor's DPA states whether patient data is used to train AI models: [yes / no, with clause reference]. 5. IDENTIFY AND ASSESS RISKS List the risks to patients and others, with likelihood and severity before mitigation. A starter list is below; add risks specific to your clinic. - What could go wrong for a patient if the data was inaccurate, lost, misused or seen by the wrong person? Answer: [ ] - Are any patient groups at higher risk (for example people who may lack capacity, or speakers of other languages)? Answer: [ ] Risk 1: AI draft contains an error (wrong dose, side or finding, or content that was not said) that enters the clinical record. Likelihood: [Possible] Severity: [Severe] Risk 2: Patient is recorded without knowing or without a real choice. Likelihood: [Possible] Severity: [Significant] Risk 3: Patient data is transferred outside the UK without safeguards, including to an AI model provider. Likelihood: [Possible] Severity: [Significant] Risk 4: Vendor or its sub-processors use patient data to train or improve AI models. Likelihood: [Possible] Severity: [Significant] Risk 5: Audio, transcripts or recordings are kept longer than needed. Likelihood: [Probable] Severity: [Significant] Risk 6: Unauthorised access to recordings or notes, at the clinic or the vendor. Likelihood: [Remote] Severity: [Severe] Risk 7: Service outage during clinic leaves notes or calls unhandled. Likelihood: [Possible] Severity: [Significant] 6. MEASURES TO REDUCE RISK For each risk, record the measures you will take and the residual risk after them. - Which measures are contractual, technical, or about how staff work? Answer: [ ] - Who owns each measure, and by when? Answer: [ ] - Is any residual risk still high? If so, UK GDPR requires you to consult the ICO before starting. Answer: [ ] Risk 1: AI draft contains an error (wrong dose, side or finding, or content that was not said) that enters the clinical record. Measures: Clinician reviews and edits every draft before saving; documentation audit; incident reporting to the vendor. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 2: Patient is recorded without knowing or without a real choice. Measures: Ask at the start of each session and record the answer; privacy notice and signage; dictation for patients who decline or may lack capacity. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 3: Patient data is transferred outside the UK without safeguards, including to an AI model provider. Measures: Confirm storage and processing locations in the DPA and sub-processor list; require notice before changes. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 4: Vendor or its sub-processors use patient data to train or improve AI models. Measures: Contractual no-training commitment covering the vendor and all sub-processors. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 5: Audio, transcripts or recordings are kept longer than needed. Measures: Written retention periods for each data type; automatic deletion; check deletion on a sample basis. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 6: Unauthorised access to recordings or notes, at the clinic or the vendor. Measures: Role-based access with two-factor authentication; access logging; encryption at rest and in transit; leavers removed promptly. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] Risk 7: Service outage during clinic leaves notes or calls unhandled. Measures: Fallback to typing or dictation; calls divert to staff; outage procedure known to the team. Residual risk: [Low / Medium / High] Owner: [ ] 7. SIGN-OFF AND REVIEW Record who approved the residual risk and when the DPIA will next be reviewed. - Who approved the measures and the residual risk? Answer: [ ] - What advice did your data protection officer give, and was it followed? Answer: [ ] - When will you review this DPIA (and what changes trigger an earlier review)? Answer: [ ] Example wording: Approved by [name, role] on [date]. DPO advice: [summary]. Next review: [date], or sooner if we add an AI tool, the vendor changes hosting or sub-processors, or an incident reveals a new risk. # Clinic AI glossary ## AI receptionist URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/ai-receptionist/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. An AI receptionist is software that answers a business's phone calls using conversational AI — speaking naturally with callers to book appointments, answer questions, take messages and route urgent calls. Unlike voicemail or phone menus, it resolves the call in real time, at any hour, and can handle simultaneous callers. For clinics, the practical difference from older phone technology is that an AI receptionist completes work rather than capturing it. A caller wanting an appointment isn't asked to leave a message — the agent checks the diary's live availability and books the slot during the call. In UK practice this usually means a direct connection to the practice management system, such as Cliniko or Nookal, so the booking exists the moment the call ends. It is not an IVR ("press 1 for appointments"), which routes but can't converse; not voicemail, which captures but can't act; and not an outsourced answering service, where humans take messages for you to action later — that comparison is covered properly in [AI receptionist vs answering service](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-receptionist-vs-answering-service-uk/). The buying questions that matter: which practice management systems it books into, what happens to calls it can't handle (a good agent transfers to your team with context), where call data is stored and for how long, and whether your patients' audio is used to train models. UK clinics should expect UK data residency and a clear retention policy as standard. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do patients know they're talking to an AI? Good practice is yes — the agent introduces itself naturally and doesn't pretend to be human. In our experience callers care about being helped quickly far more than about who answers; the frustration they remember is ringing out, not talking to software. ### What does an AI receptionist cost in the UK? Published UK pricing varies by model — per-minute, per-call base fees, and usage-based credit plans all exist in the market. Verified figures across vendors are collected in our AI receptionist cost guide; what missed calls currently cost you is usually the more important number, and takes a minute to estimate with the missed-call calculator. ## AI medical scribe URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/ai-medical-scribe/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. An AI medical scribe is software that listens to a clinical consultation — with the patient's consent — and drafts the documentation: the clinical note, referral letters and patient summaries. The clinician reviews, edits and signs every document; the scribe removes the typing, not the clinical authorship. Also called an ambient scribe or AI scribe, the technology combines speech recognition with language models that understand clinical structure — so a natural consultation becomes a structured note (SOAP or your own format) rather than a raw transcript. The defining property is that the clinician remains the author: nothing is final until reviewed and approved. It differs from dictation, where you still compose every sentence yourself after the patient leaves — the scribe drafts from the consultation itself, which is where the time saving comes from. The full comparison, including where dictation still wins, is in [AI scribe vs dictation](https://www.motics.ai/guides/ai-scribe-vs-dictation/). UK governance questions to ask any scribe vendor: where audio and notes are processed and stored (expect UK data residency), how quickly audio is deleted (Motics deletes within 48 hours), whether patient data trains models (it shouldn't), and how consent is captured — including for patients who may lack capacity, covered in our [consent and capacity](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/consent-and-capacity-ai/) entry. ### Frequently asked questions ### Are AI scribe notes acceptable to UK regulators? Regulators set standards for the record's content and authorship, not the tool used to draft it. HCPC, GOsC, GCC and CSP guidance all require records that justify clinical reasoning, authored by the clinician — which is why mandatory review and sign-off is the non-negotiable part of any scribe workflow. ### How much time does an AI scribe actually save? The honest answer depends on your documentation load — clinicians with heavy report or letter requirements save the most. The pattern owners describe is the end of 'pyjama time': notes finished in clinic rather than at home in the evening. ## Ambient AI URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/ambient-ai/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. Ambient AI is technology that works in the background of a clinical encounter rather than being actively operated. In practice it means a scribe that listens to the consultation (with consent) and produces the documentation afterwards — the clinician talks to the patient, not to a screen or a dictaphone. The word "ambient" is the distinction from earlier workflows: dictation requires you to narrate after the encounter; templates require you to type during it. Ambient tools require nothing during the consultation except the conversation you were having anyway — the structured note, letters and codes are drafted from it. The trade-off to scrutinise is exactly what makes it convenient: the microphone is open during clinical care. That makes the governance questions sharper than for most software — explicit consent before recording, fast audio deletion, UK data residency, and no model training on patient data are the baseline. Our [UK clinic AI compliance guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinic-ai-compliance-uk/) covers the frameworks that apply. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is ambient AI the same as an AI scribe? An AI scribe is the main ambient AI product in clinics today, so the terms are often used interchangeably. Strictly, ambient AI is the broader category — background technology in the encounter — and scribing is its first mainstream clinical application. ### Does ambient recording need special consent? It needs explicit, informed consent before recording starts, captured in a way you can evidence. For patients who may lack capacity to consent, you need a defined process — see our consent and capacity entry for how UK clinics handle it. ## SOAP note URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/soap-note/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. A SOAP note is a clinical record structured into four sections: Subjective (what the patient reports), Objective (what you measure and observe), Assessment (your clinical reasoning and diagnosis), and Plan (treatment, advice and follow-up). It's the dominant note format in UK physiotherapy and allied health practice. The format's value is that it forces the record to show reasoning, not just findings — the Assessment section is where a defensible note differs from a list of measurements. UK professional bodies don't mandate SOAP specifically, but their record-keeping standards (CSP guidance, HCPC standards) require exactly what a good SOAP note demonstrates: enough detail for another clinician to take over, and reasoning that justifies the plan. - Subjective: presenting complaint, history, patient-reported symptoms, aggravating and easing factors. - Objective: examination findings, range of movement, strength, special tests, outcome measures. - Assessment: clinical impression, differential diagnosis, progress against the plan — the reasoning. - Plan: treatment delivered, exercises prescribed, advice given, and what happens next. The practical problem is volume: a full diary means a dozen or more SOAP notes a day, and the Assessment section — the part that matters most — is the part most often thinned by time pressure. This is the workload [AI scribes](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/ai-medical-scribe/) were built for: drafting the full structure from the consultation, with the clinician reviewing and signing. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is SOAP required in the UK? No regulator mandates the SOAP format itself — CSP and HCPC standards govern what a record must demonstrate, not its headings. SOAP persists because it reliably produces records that meet those standards; if your format shows the same reasoning and detail, it's equally valid. ### Can an AI scribe write SOAP notes? Yes — drafting a structured SOAP note from a natural consultation is the core scribe task. The draft separates what the patient said (S) from your findings (O) and your stated reasoning (A/P), and you review and approve every note before it enters the record. Sources: - [CSP — Record keeping guidance](https://www.csp.org.uk/professional-clinical/professional-guidance/record-keeping-guidance) ## Pyjama time URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/pyjama-time/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. Pyjama time is the unpaid hours clinicians spend finishing clinical notes, letters and admin at home after the working day ends — named for being done in pyjamas, after dinner, often with a laptop on the sofa. It's one of the most consistent burnout drivers reported across UK clinical practice. The phrase came out of electronic health record research in general practice and spread because every clinician recognised it instantly. In private and allied health practice it shows up as the same pattern: a full treating diary leaves no daytime gaps, so documentation migrates to evenings — practice owners tell us about "doing notes while cooking dinner for the children". Beyond the personal cost, pyjama-time notes are clinically worse: written hours after the encounter, from memory, in a hurry. The detail and reasoning that make a record defensible are exactly what evening batching erodes — which is why documentation quality and clinician wellbeing are usually the same problem wearing two coats. The fix is structural, not motivational: documentation has to happen during or immediately after the encounter without stealing treatment time. That's the job of an [AI medical scribe](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/ai-medical-scribe/) — the note drafts itself from the consultation, and review takes minutes in clinic rather than hours at home. ### Frequently asked questions ### How much pyjama time is normal? There's no healthy amount, but clinicians with documentation-heavy caseloads commonly report 5–10 hours a week of after-hours admin. Owners often only quantify it when they multiply the nightly hour by a working year — it's typically hundreds of unpaid hours. ### Does an AI scribe actually eliminate it? It removes the drafting, which is most of the time — clinicians still review and sign every note, and complex cases still need thought. The realistic outcome reported is notes finished before leaving clinic, with evenings returned. ## Missed-call rate URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/missed-call-rate/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. A missed-call rate is the percentage of inbound calls a business fails to answer — calls that ring out, hit voicemail or meet an engaged tone. UK clinic phone reports commonly show 15–25% of calls missed around peak times, lunch cover and after hours, and most owners underestimate their own figure until they measure it. The measurement matters because missed calls are invisible by nature — the patient who couldn't get through doesn't appear anywhere in your day. The only honest source is your phone system: every modern system (including practice VoIP platforms) can produce an unanswered-calls report, ideally broken down by hour so you can see exactly when the leak happens. Interpreting it for a clinic means weighting by intent: an unanswered call isn't a minor inconvenience when the caller is a new patient ready to book — it's usually a booking made somewhere else. A realistic conversion model (around 60% of answered enquiries become appointments) turns your rate into a revenue figure; the [missed-call cost calculator](https://www.motics.ai/calculators/missed-call/) does that arithmetic in under a minute. - Measure: pull the unanswered-calls report for a typical fortnight, by hour. - Locate: find the pattern — peak mornings, lunch, after close are the usual culprits. - Value: apply your average appointment value to the missed volume. - Fix: match the fix to the pattern — overflow cover for peaks, 24/7 answering for out-of-hours. ### Frequently asked questions ### What's a good missed-call rate for a clinic? Under 5% is achievable with proper coverage; 15–25% is what phone reports commonly show at clinics relying on a busy front desk alone. The right target depends on when your calls arrive — a clinic with heavy evening demand can't fix its rate with daytime staffing at all. ### Do missed callers just ring back? Some do — existing patients with loyalty usually retry. New patients in pain typically don't: they work down their search results until someone answers. That asymmetry is why missed-call cost models weight new-patient enquiries heavily. ## DTAC URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/dtac/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. DTAC — the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria — is the NHS's baseline assessment for digital health technologies. It checks five areas: clinical safety, data protection, technical security, interoperability, and usability/accessibility. NHS organisations use it when procuring digital tools; private clinics increasingly borrow it as a ready-made due-diligence checklist. DTAC was published by NHSX (now part of NHS England) to give health and care organisations one consistent way to assess digital suppliers. It isn't a certification a vendor "holds" in the way of an ISO standard — it's a set of criteria a buyer assesses a product against, with evidence supplied by the vendor: DCB0129 clinical risk management, GDPR compliance, security testing, and standards-based interoperability. For private UK clinics, DTAC matters two ways. If you take NHS contracts or work alongside NHS services, your tools may be assessed against it. And even if you never touch the NHS, the five domains are an excellent free framework for judging any clinic AI vendor — they're essentially the questions you'd want to ask anyway, written down by people who assess suppliers for a living. When a vendor says they are "DTAC compliant", the precise question is: can they supply the completed DTAC evidence pack for a buyer's assessment? Our [UK clinic AI compliance guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinic-ai-compliance-uk/) walks through DTAC alongside the other frameworks (UK GDPR, DSPT, Cyber Essentials) in plain English. ### Frequently asked questions ### Do private clinics need DTAC? There's no legal requirement for a private clinic to assess tools against DTAC — it's an NHS procurement framework. But its five domains map directly onto the risks a private clinic carries anyway, which is why many practice owners use it as a free vendor checklist. ### Is DTAC a certification vendors can hold? Not exactly — DTAC is assessed by the buying organisation against vendor-supplied evidence, rather than awarded centrally. A credible vendor maintains a completed DTAC evidence pack and shares it on request; treat reluctance to share one as a signal. Sources: - [NHS England — Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC)](https://digital.nhs.uk/services/digital-technology-assessment-criteria-dtac) ## DSPT URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/dspt/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. The DSPT — Data Security and Protection Toolkit — is an annual online self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's security standards. Any organisation with access to NHS patient data or systems must complete it each year. For private clinics, a vendor's current DSPT status is a quick, checkable signal of data-security maturity. The toolkit covers staff training, access controls, incident response, technical security and data-protection governance, with the assessment published — you can look any organisation's status up on the DSPT website. Standards are reviewed annually, so "DSPT compliant" only means anything with a year attached: the question for any vendor is whether their current-year assessment shows 'Standards Met' (or exceeded). Private-only clinics aren't required to complete the DSPT unless they access NHS data or systems (for example through NHS contracts, or systems like NHSmail). Where it earns its place in a private clinic's due diligence is on the vendor side: a clinic AI supplier that processes patient data and maintains a published 'Standards Met' DSPT has accepted external, annual, NHS-grade scrutiny — which is more than a privacy policy proves. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does my private practice need to complete the DSPT? Only if you have access to NHS patient data or national systems — NHS contracts and NHSmail are the common triggers. A fully private clinic with no NHS data flows isn't required to, though some complete it voluntarily for credibility with NHS referrers. ### How do I check a vendor's DSPT status? Search the organisation on the public DSPT website — status, year and standard met are published. Check the assessment is current; an old entry means the annual cycle lapsed. Sources: - [NHS — Data Security and Protection Toolkit](https://www.dsptoolkit.nhs.uk/) ## Cyber Essentials URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/cyber-essentials/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification, run by the National Cyber Security Centre, showing an organisation has five baseline technical controls in place: firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and security update management. Cyber Essentials Plus adds independent hands-on testing of the same controls. The scheme exists to make basic cyber hygiene checkable: certification is annual, the certificate is verifiable, and the Plus tier means an external assessor actually tested the controls rather than reviewing a questionnaire. It's deliberately a baseline — it proves the fundamentals are done, not that an organisation is impenetrable. For clinics evaluating AI vendors, it slots into a hierarchy of assurance: Cyber Essentials (baseline controls, self-assessed) → Cyber Essentials Plus (baseline controls, independently tested) → ISO 27001 (a full, audited information-security management system). A vendor processing patient data should be able to evidence at least one rung of that ladder without hesitation — it's one of the six governance questions we suggest asking every vendor. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is Cyber Essentials legally required for clinics? No — it's voluntary, though some NHS and insurer contracts require it of suppliers. For a private clinic the practical relevance is usually vendor-side: it's a fast, verifiable signal when comparing software suppliers, and some cyber-insurance policies price it in. ### What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001? Scope and depth. Cyber Essentials certifies five specific technical controls annually; ISO 27001 audits an entire information-security management system — policies, risk processes, people and technology. They're complementary: many healthcare vendors hold both. Sources: - [NCSC — Cyber Essentials overview](https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/overview) ## UK data residency URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/uk-data-residency/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. UK data residency means data is stored and processed on servers physically located in the United Kingdom, under UK jurisdiction. For clinics it's shorthand for a bigger question: which country's laws and authorities can reach your patients' data, and whether international transfers — with their extra UK GDPR safeguards — are happening at all. UK GDPR doesn't strictly require data to stay in the UK — transfers abroad are lawful with appropriate safeguards (adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses). But residency removes a whole class of legal complexity and risk, which is why it has become the default expectation clinics put to software vendors handling patient data — and a question that genuinely sorts vendors: some process audio or AI workloads in the US or elsewhere and rely on transfer mechanisms; some keep everything onshore. The verification questions: where are production servers located (region names, not vagueness)? Where does AI processing happen — including any third-party models the vendor calls? Where do backups live? And is any of it contractually committed in the data processing agreement, or just marketing copy? Motics stores and processes data in the UK; we'd encourage you to make any vendor put their answer in writing. ### Frequently asked questions ### Is UK data residency legally required for patient data? No — UK GDPR permits international transfers with appropriate safeguards. Residency is a risk-reduction choice rather than a legal mandate, but it simplifies your DPIA, removes transfer-mechanism fragility, and is increasingly what patients and insurers expect of health data. ### Does using a US AI model break residency? It can — if the vendor sends your data to a model hosted abroad, your data has left the UK regardless of where the vendor's own servers sit. Ask specifically where AI inference happens and whether any subprocessors are outside the UK; the subprocessor list in the DPA is where the truth lives. Sources: - [ICO — International transfers (UK GDPR guidance)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/international-transfers/) ## Consent and capacity (for clinic AI) URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/consent-and-capacity-ai/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. In clinic AI, consent and capacity refers to two linked requirements: the patient must give informed consent before a consultation is recorded by an AI scribe, and where a patient may lack the capacity to consent — covered in England and Wales by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 — the clinic needs a defined process rather than an assumption. The consent half is operationally simple: the clinician explains that an AI tool will listen and draft the note, what happens to the audio, and asks before recording starts. Declining must be a real option that costs the patient nothing — you simply document the old way. The consent itself should be recorded in the note. Capacity is where many AI tools and policies fall short, and it matters most in exactly the settings with the heaviest documentation loads: community neuro-rehabilitation, elderly care, paediatrics, severe mental illness. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 requires capacity to be assumed unless shown otherwise, assessed decision-by-decision — so a workable clinic policy covers who assesses, what a best-interests decision for recording looks like, when consultees or those with lasting power of attorney are involved, and how all of it is documented. When evaluating vendors, ask directly: what is your recommended consent script, how does your product support patients who decline, and what's your guidance where capacity is in doubt? A vendor that hasn't thought about the capacity question hasn't thought hard about UK clinical reality. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does an AI scribe need written consent? UK GDPR doesn't mandate a signature — verbal informed consent, documented in the record, is the common standard, mirroring how consent to examination works. What matters is that it's informed (the patient understands recording and processing), freely given, and evidenced. ### Can I use an AI scribe with a patient who lacks capacity? Possibly, via a best-interests decision under the Mental Capacity Act framework — but not by default and not silently. Your policy should define who decides, how the decision is recorded, and when recording is simply not used. If a vendor's answer is a shrug, that's your answer about the vendor. Sources: - [Mental Capacity Act 2005 — legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9) ## Clinical documentation audit URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/clinical-documentation-audit/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. A clinical documentation audit is a structured review of patient records against defined standards — checking completeness, clinical reasoning, consent capture, and safety-netting. UK clinics traditionally audit by sampling a handful of notes per clinician per quarter; AI auditing now makes reviewing 100% of records practical. Documentation audit is how a clinic proves to itself — before a regulator, insurer or lawyer asks — that its records do their job. The criteria come from professional standards (HCPC, CSP and equivalent bodies' record-keeping guidance) and, for CQC-registered providers, from the governance expectations of [Regulation 17](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/cqc-regulation-17/): records must be accurate, complete and contemporaneous. The traditional method's weakness is arithmetic: sampling five notes per clinician per quarter from thousands written covers around 1% of the record base, takes a full day someone senior doesn't have, and tells you little about the other 99%. It finds the conscientious clinician's occasional slip and misses the systematic gap. AI changes the economics rather than the standards: every note can be checked against the same criteria, continuously, with humans reviewing the flagged exceptions. Clinician-by-clinician and criterion-by-criterion patterns become visible — which is governance information a growing clinic can act on. The full picture, including how UK clinics structure audit criteria, is in our [clinical documentation audit guide](https://www.motics.ai/guides/clinical-documentation-audit-uk/). ### Frequently asked questions ### How often should a clinic audit its documentation? Quarterly sampling is the common traditional cadence, usually tied to governance meetings. Continuous automated review changes the question from 'how often do we look' to 'how quickly do we act on what's flagged' — the audit becomes a standing control rather than a periodic event. ### What do auditors actually check in a clinical note? Typical criteria: presenting complaint and history recorded, objective findings, clinical reasoning visible, consent documented, treatment and advice noted, safety-netting present, follow-up planned, and the record signed and dated. The exact set should reflect your professional body's guidance and your own policies. Sources: - [CSP — Record keeping guidance](https://www.csp.org.uk/professional-clinical/professional-guidance/record-keeping-guidance) ## CQC Regulation 17 URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/cqc-regulation-17/ Last updated: 2026-06-12. Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 — 'Good governance' — requires CQC-registered providers to operate effective systems for quality and risk, and to maintain an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record for every service user. It's the regulation clinic documentation practices are most often judged against. The record-keeping clause is the one clinics feel daily: every patient must have a record that is accurate, complete and contemporaneous — written close enough to the event to be reliable. Notes batched days later, or thinned to a line by time pressure, are exactly what the wording targets. The governance clauses require you to be able to show your systems work: that you assess and monitor quality, and act on what you find. Two practical implications for clinic AI. Documentation tools help with the contemporaneous requirement — notes drafted from the consultation itself, finished the same session, rather than reconstructed at 9pm (see [pyjama time](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/pyjama-time/)). And the 'assess and monitor' duty is what a [documentation audit](https://www.motics.ai/glossary/clinical-documentation-audit/) evidences — reviewing records against standards and acting on the gaps, which AI now makes possible across 100% of notes rather than a sample. Not every private clinic is CQC-registered — registration depends on which regulated activities you provide. But Regulation 17's record standard is a sensible benchmark even for unregistered practices, because it mirrors what professional bodies and insurers expect anyway. ### Frequently asked questions ### Does Regulation 17 apply to my physiotherapy or chiropractic clinic? Only if your clinic is CQC-registered, which depends on the regulated activities you provide — many physiotherapy and chiropractic practices fall outside registration, while clinics offering certain diagnostic or medical services fall inside. Check your registration position; either way the record standard is the benchmark professional bodies expect. ### What does 'contemporaneous' actually require? Records made at the time of the event or as soon as practicable afterwards — same-session is safe ground; days later from memory is not. There's no statutory hour-count, but the further from the encounter a record is written, the harder it is to defend as accurate and complete. Sources: - [CQC — Regulation 17: Good governance](https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-17) ## Credit-based pricing URL: https://www.motics.ai/glossary/credit-based-pricing/ Last updated: 2026-07-02. Credit-based pricing is a software pricing model where a clinic buys a monthly plan containing a pool of usage credits, spent as the team actually uses the product — rather than paying a licence per named user. Usage is shared across the whole team, so part-time clinicians don't cost full-time money. The model exists because clinic teams don't look like office software assumes: a typical allied health practice mixes full-time clinicians, Saturday-only associates, and a locum covering Thursdays. Per-seat licensing charges all of them identically, which quietly taxes exactly the flexible staffing models private practice runs on. A shared credit pool charges the clinic for work done, whoever did it. Reading a credit model honestly means asking three things: what consumes a credit (a note drafted, a call answered — the unit should be legible), what the plan sizes look like against your realistic monthly volume, and what happens when you run over (top-ups, auto-upgrades, or hard stops). Predictability is the point — if you can't forecast your monthly cost from your diary, the model isn't being explained properly. The honest counter-case: for teams where every member is full-time and very high volume, a flat per-seat price can work out cheaper per head. Credit models win where usage is uneven across the team — which describes most UK private clinics. Motics prices this way: plans sized by usage, credits shared across the team and fungible across agents. Current plans are on the [pricing page](https://www.motics.ai/pricing/). ### Frequently asked questions ### Is credit-based pricing cheaper than per-seat? It depends on your team shape. Mixed full-time/part-time teams almost always pay less under credits, because part-timers stop costing full licences. A uniformly full-time, very high-volume team can be cheaper per-seat — a vendor who acknowledges that is being straight with you. ### What happens if we use all our credits mid-month? Ask the vendor — good answers are transparent top-ups or a plan upgrade you control; bad answers are silent overage billing or the product stopping mid-clinic. At Motics, you get credit alerts as you approach your allowance, unused credits roll over (up to 10%), and usage beyond the pool is charged at a published pay-as-you-go rate — the service never stops mid-clinic.