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NHS launches largest ever AI clinical documentation procurement covering 70,000 Midlands clinicians

Grace Firmin-Guion

31 July 2026•4 min read•
•

Table of Contents

  • From local pilots to regional collaboration

  • Supporting national AI and NHS productivity goals

  • Media Contact

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  • Heidi was selected as sole supplier through a competitive process run by The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals on behalf of NHS England Midlands
  • The procurement covers 15 acute and community trusts, all Midlands integrated care boards (ICBs) and 1,239 GP practices, making it the largest procurement of its kind in the NHS
  • Real-world pilots at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust cut a six‑month rheumatology letter backlog to 14 days and reduced emergency care documentation time by 80 per cent using Heidi.

London, UK, 15 July 2026, NHS clinicians across the Midlands are set to benefit from a new regional procurement for AI clinical documentation - a single, assured route to deploy ambient voice technology (AVT) at scale - the first and largest of its kind in the NHS.

Following a competitive process run by the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals on behalf of NHS England Midlands, , the AI Care Partner, has been selected as the sole supplier. The procurement covers 70,000 clinicians across 15 acute and community trusts and all integrated care boards (ICBs), including 1,239 GP practices, spanning emergency departments, outpatient services and primary care.

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From local pilots to regional collaboration

The procurement began in a Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit and in a rheumatology clinic in Dudley. Pilots led by Dudley Group, delivered an 80 per cent reduction in documentation time in SDEC and cut a six-month rheumatology letter backlog down to 14 days. These results are consistent with wider UK evidence from Heidi's 2025 Impact Report, which found an 85 per cent reduction in documentation time in another SDEC unit.

The results from Dudley's pilot set a new standard for the Midlands region, with other trusts choosing to follow their lead. Demand grew for a single, large-scale procurement route that could be used across the whole region. NHS England Midlands supported this by coordinating a regional model and inviting trusts across the Midlands to participate.

Ravinder Kaur Sahota, Group Chief Information Officer at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust said:"Dudley had seen first-hand what was possible. Our clinicians were spending less time on documentation and more time with patients, and that told us we needed to find a way for the whole region to benefit. We built the clinical safety case, the business case, and the evidence base so that other trusts would not have to start from scratch. This shows what we can achieve when the NHS works collaboratively to get safe, effective AI into the hands of clinicians at scale."

Supporting national AI and NHS productivity goals

The Midlands procurement is designed to be repeatable, and sits against a national policy backdrop. NHS England has set an expectation that ICBs and providers will adopt ambient voice technology from April 2026, in line with national guidance on safe AI deployment and the Medium Term Planning Framework. The Midlands approach offers other regions a proven procurement route, rather than each starting from scratch.

Dr Hannah Allen, GP and Chief Medical Officer of Heidi, said:"NHS Midlands has put in place a route that any trust or ICB in the region can now use, built on thorough procurement and real evidence from frontline services. We are committed to delivering results for every organisation that chooses to use it."

Deployment across the region has already begun in phases, with The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Walsall Healthcare NHS and The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust going live in May 2026, followed by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

Media Contact

gracefirmin@heidihealth.com

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