Surrey and Borders NHS trust awards Accurx GBP 85,500 ambient voice AI deal

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has awarded AccuRx Limited a contract worth GBP 85,500, excluding VAT, for AI-enabled ambient voice technology (AVT), according to a contract award notice published on Find a Tender on 16 October 2026. The notice describes the requirement as “AI-enabled ambient voice technology for all clinicians across all clinical specialties and across all care settings.”

The contract was concluded on 12 October 2026. The trust received seven tenders and used price as the award criterion, the notice says. It was placed without a prior call for competition, with the notice giving “DPS RM6200 Artificial Intelligence Dynamic Purchasing System” as the explanation. Accurx is listed as a London-based SME.

The notice does not state the contract term, a start date, the number of clinicians or licences covered, or which Accurx product will be deployed. The value shown is the same for the initial estimate, the lowest offer and the highest offer taken into consideration. The Healthcare Daily did not find a statement from the trust or the company about the award.

What the supplier offers

Accurx’s website describes its Scribe product as “The AI medical scribe built for general practice” and says it captures consultations and drafts notes. The company also states on its website that it is “Used in 68% of NHS trusts” and that “98% of GP practices choose us”. These are company figures that The Healthcare Daily has not independently verified.

The award follows other AVT moves by NHS providers. HTN reported on 13 October that Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust is using Accurx Scribe in its older people’s mental health service as part of a trust-wide rollout. According to that report, the tool drafts clinical notes and referral letters from consultations, and clinicians check and sign off the drafts before they enter the patient record.

The same day, HTN reported that the North West London Acute Provider Group, covering Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust and The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, had published notice of its intent to procure an AVT solution and opened market engagement, with an estimated contract running from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2030. In July, HTN reported that NHS Midlands had selected Heidi for AVT across all 1,239 GP practices and 15 acute and community trusts in the region, and that Heidi is on a self-certified NHS England AVT supplier registry which, according to HTN, was first published in January.

Our reading

• The Healthcare Daily’s reading: a trust-wide scope for GBP 85,500 is a small sum by NHS IT standards, but because the notice gives no term or user count, buyers and rival suppliers cannot work out a unit price from it. Trusts benchmarking AVT costs will need the procurement documents or a freedom of information request.
• In our view, seven bids and a price-only award through a dynamic purchasing system suggest a crowded supplier field for AVT and pricing pressure in single-trust deals, while regional, at-scale buys such as the Midlands one are a separate contest.
• Accurx already sells into NHS trusts and general practice, by its own account. Suppliers competing for AVT work will be bidding against a vendor that can add AVT to an existing relationship.
• Governance stays with the trust. The Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber example, as reported by HTN, relies on clinician sign-off of every draft; trusts extending AVT to all clinicians and settings will need equivalent controls and audit.