AI technology that listens to and transcribes patients’ consultations with doctors can put them at risk by getting the names of drugs and illnesses wrong, an NHS watchdog has warned.
In one case a woman was left badly shaken when the AI scribe’s summary of her conversation wrongly said she had demyelination – serious nerve damage that can lead to multiple sclerosis.
It was only when the patient, an NHS health professional, queried the AI tool’s record of the result of her MRI scan that the hospital corrected it to what it should have been – “null demyelination”.
Healthwatch England has highlighted the case and other mistakes by AI scribes to show that the technology, which the NHS is rolling out rapidly, is a potential threat to patient safety. Unless detected, errors could end up in patients’ medical records and affect their care, it said.
Source: The Guardian, 31 August 2026
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