BMA warns GPs on the ‘substantial’ risks of AI scribing tools

The British Medical Association (BMA) has advised that GPs should pause the use of AI scribing tools unless they have carried out data protection and safety checks.

Government guidance, published in April 2025, encourages NHS clinicians to use ambient voice technology (AVT) and generative AI to transcribe patient consultations and turn them into structured medical notes and letters.

However the BMA has published advice on the use of ambient scribes in general practice, which warns about potential risks associated with the technology, GP Online reported.

 “While these tools hold enormous potential to improve the efficiency and quality of consultations as well as ease the administrative burden placed on GPs, they hold a substantial degree of risk – both in terms of information governance and patient safety,” the BMA advice says.

It adds that “if practices are in any doubt whatsoever they pause their use of these products”.

The BMA warns that even if scribing tools have been supplied as part of a package with other widely used IT tools, GPs are still obligated to ensure their safety.

 “As practices are ultimately responsible for any consequences arising from the use of these new platforms, it is critical that they are confident of having carried out proper clinical safety and information governance assurance,” it says.

GPs are advised to carry out clinical safety and data protection impact assessments on scribing technology, as well as checking if products have been registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as class one medical devices and are compliant with NHS standards.

The warning follows a letter circulated by Dr Alec Price-Forbes, national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, on 9 June 2025, advising caution about the use of AVT.

A spokesperson for NHSE told Digital Health News: “We are working with NHS organisations and suppliers to ensure that all ambient voice technology products used across the health service continue to be compliant with NHS standards on clinical safety and data security.”

Interim results from a London-wide evaluation of AVT, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, found that the technology “dramatically” reduced admin, allowing clinicians to spend more time with patients.

The multi-site trial of healthcare AI assistant TORTUS, which began in June 2024, evaluated AVT capabilities across primary care, adult outpatients, paediatrics, mental health, community care, A&E and the London Ambulance Service.

Speaking at NHS CondExpo on 12 June 2025, Wes Streeting, health secretary, said that he had heard anecdotally that some clinicians are “getting ahead of the game and using ambient AI to record notes and things even where their practice or their trust are not yet caught up with them”.

He said that although he didn’t encourage this, it showed that clinicians are “crying out for” AI and “don’t want to be sat there scribbling or typing notes”.

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with Digital Health News, Dr Jessica Morley, postdoctoral researcher at Yale University Digital Ethics Centre, said that the level of risk posed by AVT is underestimated because of “problems with hallucinations and accuracy”.