AI physio clinic more than halves NHS back pain waiting list

An AI-powered physiotherapy clinic has more than halved waiting lists for back pain in its first large-scale deployment in England.

The service from Flok Health, which provides same-day appointments for back pain via an app, was trialled by Cambridgeshire Community Services (CCS) NHS Trust over a 12 week period between February 2025 and June 2025.

More than 2,500 patients in Cambridge and Peterborough accessed the AI clinic during the 12 weeks, and the waiting list for back pain was reduced by 55%.

Mike Passfield, deputy director from Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, said: “We’re proud to have been the first NHS organisation in England to deploy Flok Health’s AI powered physiotherapy clinic at scale.

“The impact has been extraordinary delivering same-day access to care for thousands of patients, reducing back pain waiting lists by over 50%, and freeing up clinicians to focus on other patients with complex MSK conditions.

“What matters most to us is making sure patients get the right care, quickly and safely and this pilot has shown that innovation like Flok can truly transform how we deliver services.

“This pilot has demonstrated how innovation, when safely and thoughtfully integrated into NHS pathways, can dramatically improve access, outcomes and patient experience.”

Following the pilot’s success, Flok is working with CCS to explore permanently rolling out the digital service to patients in the region.

The trial was part of a pilot deployment commissioned by CCS in partnership with the GIRFT Further Faster Programme: an initiative bringing together NHS clinicians and operational teams to improve access and waiting times for patients.

When the AI clinic first went live in Cambridgeshire, waiting times for elective community musculoskeletal (MSK) services in the region stood at 18 weeks.

Over the 12 week period, the initiative – which also included MSK superclinics and community assessment days – reduced waiting times for all MSK conditions across the trust by 44% to less than 10 weeks.

Flok Health, which is part of the DigitalHealth.London accelerator 2025 cohort, is the first digital MSK service to be registered as a provider with the Care Quality Commission, meaning that it has met the requirements to provide treatment for disease, disorder or injury.

It uses video footage of a human physiotherapist to offer patients personalised treatment for back pain with zero waitlist, in a setting which feels like a video call with a physiotherapist.

Finn Stevenson, co-founder and chief executive at Flok Health, said: “Seeing the impact our service has had in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – which is also where our team lives and works – has been incredibly meaningful.

“Our AI clinic enables patients to access world-class MSK care immediately, whilst freeing up traditional clinical capacity for patients who want or need to see a clinician in person.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with our innovative NHS partners to deliver gold-standard, scalable MSK care to patients in Cambridgeshire and across the UK.”

In January 2025, NHS Lothian in Scotland rolled out Flok Health to more than one million NHS patients in its first large-scale UK deployment.