RDaSH extends Accurx Scribe ambient AI to mental health services in trust-wide rollout

Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) said on 14 October 2026 that it is rolling out Accurx Scribe across the trust, with its Older People's Mental Health Service among the first services to use it ¹. The tool is powered by Tandem Health, which the trust describes as a European AI medical assistant ¹.

How the trust is using it

Scribe uses ambient voice technology. It listens to a consultation and drafts clinical notes, referral letters and patient summaries while the conversation is under way. Clinicians review and approve every output before anything is written to the patient record ¹.

The trust chose older people's mental health as an early service because its appointments tend to be long and detailed, covering memory, mood, medication and family circumstances, all of which must be recorded accurately. The service treats people living with dementia and Alzheimer's disease ¹. The aim is to move that documentation work to the software so clinicians can concentrate on the patient ¹.

Dr Michael Seneviratne, the trust's associate medical director and chief clinical information officer, said the trust wants technology to "earn its place in our services" and is using Scribe carefully, with clinicians involved from the outset ¹. Sally Jameson, MP for Doncaster Central, watched a demonstration of the tool drafting a note in real time ¹.

What it means for the market

The rollout is a sign that ambient scribing is moving beyond general practice and acute outpatient clinics into mental health, where consultations are longer and documentation heavier. Jack Tabner, general manager at Accurx, called the trust's clinically led approach "a strong template for other organisations as they move from pilots to adopting this technology safely at scale" ¹.

The supplier's reach is already wide. Tandem is registered with the MHRA and certified under the Medical Device Regulation. Through its partnership with Accurx it is available to 98% of GP practices in England and to 200,000 clinicians across the UK ¹. For trusts weighing ambient voice suppliers, that distribution through an incumbent primary care messaging platform is a competitive advantage that standalone scribe vendors will have to match. Dr Katie Baker, Tandem's director for the UK and Ireland, said mental health teams "carry a heavy documentation load" ¹.

The announcement gives no contract value, licence count, timetable for the full rollout or list of the other services that will follow ¹.

Caveats

The source is the trust's own announcement. It reports that the tool is reducing the administrative burden staff face, but gives no measured results: no time saved per appointment, no accuracy figures for the drafted notes and no patient feedback ¹. Availability to 98% of GP practices describes where the tool can be switched on, not how many practices use it ¹. Those measures will decide whether mental health providers follow RDaSH from early services to full deployment.