NHS England has set out how £10 billion of government funding over the next three years will be spent on an overhaul of the health service's technology, digital and data systems, with chief executive Sir Jim Mackey saying the programme of work will "transform services" by directing patients to the right care first time and freeing clinicians from administrative tasks.
The plans, published on 4 July 2026, prioritise a series of national deployments:
- An AI triage tool in the NHS App, due to reach more than 200,000 patients within 12 months and all NHS App users by April 2028, which adapts its questions to a patient's responses before directing them to a GP appointment, pharmacy, A&E, community service or self-care advice, or passing information to clinicians to prioritise care.
- A national rollout of ambient voice technology - AI tools that record conversations between patients and NHS staff to generate real-time transcriptions and clinical summaries - beginning with hospital appointments not requiring an overnight stay.
- Access to Microsoft Copilot for more than 500,000 NHS staff, following a trial in which workers reduced time spent on administration by an average of two days per month.
- A virtual hospital service, NHS Online, allowing NHS App users to join online appointments with clinicians across England, alongside App features for requesting follow-up appointments and NHS-approved digital tools for managing lung and heart condition rehabilitation.
- Introduction of a Single Patient Record giving specialists across the NHS a full picture of a patient's medical history, new digital tools for managing urgent and planned care, and enhanced cyber security to protect patient data and NHS systems.
NHS England expects the investment to deliver around half of the commitments in the government's 10 Year Health Plan and generate £41 billion in total benefits over the next decade.
The triage tool follows a trial at Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership in Sussex, where Dr Ragu Rajan said integrating AI triage into the NHS App meant patients at the rural practice, which serves 23,000 patients across four sites, could be directed to the right care first time. Rajan said the tool had not replaced clinical judgement but had given clinicians back the time to use it. The trial produced a 29% reduction in the number of people queuing on the phone while maintaining patient satisfaction levels. Patients will retain the option of contacting their GP practice by traditional methods.
On ambient voice technology, a study led by Great Ormond Street Hospital published last year found that AI notetaking tools free clinicians to spend nearly a quarter more of their time with patients, and that scaling the technology to over 11,000 A&E clinicians in England could create capacity for over 9,000 additional A&E consultations each day.
The technology is being rolled out to tens of thousands of staff across four south-west London trusts — St George's, Epsom and St Helier, Croydon, and Kingston and Richmond — after a pilot in the emergency department at St George's Hospital in Tooting saved clinicians an average of 47 minutes per shift. Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust are expanding their programmes to more than 3,000 clinicians.
Dr Ahmed Mahdi, consultant in emergency medicine at St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said the technology cut the time clinicians spend on documentation, allowing staff to see more patients each shift while reducing pressure in a busy environment.
Mark Cubbon, chief executive of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust's trials of ambient voice technology had shown real benefits, and that what mattered most was introducing the tools responsibly, with the right safeguards in place and with clinicians and teams closely involved in how they are used.
Health and Social Care Secretary James Murray said the investment would get patients to the right care faster, reduce clinicians' paperwork and help drive down waiting times, and that the government had backed the innovations expected to have the biggest impact on patients and clinicians.
The full announcement is available on the NHS England website here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/07/nhs-accelerates-artificial-intelligence-rollout-to-cut-waiting-times-and-improve-care-for-millions/
