The Surgery’s Own Assistant: Local AI for GP Practices
Policies, complaint responses, PCN reporting, patient leaflets, CQC evidence. A practice manager’s paperwork is exactly what an assistant should draft and exactly what cannot go to a public chatbot.
£500 per month for the software and the hardware rental. You rent the machine — you don’t buy it.
Local AI for GP practices is a dedicated AI machine installed in the surgery that drafts and searches the practice’s administrative documents — policies, complaint responses, PCN reports, patient letters and leaflets — with everything staying in the building. It stays out of the clinical system, and is installed and supported by us.
See what it would do for your practice
A short call with the practice manager or a partner. Bring your DSPT lead; we will walk through the data flow.
One machine in the practice office, running private chat, document spaces and assistants. Practice documents never leave the surgery.
Cloud Agents for the Phone, Local AI for Practice Documents
Appointment calls and the admin inbox suit a hosted agent; practice policies, complaints correspondence and hospital letters suit a machine inside the surgery. Many practices run both.
- ☁ Cloud-based AI Receptionist
- ☁ Cloud-based Email Manager
- ☁ Cloud-based Leads Outreach
- 🏢 On-premise Local AI
Cloud AI Versus a Machine in the Surgery
A practice answers for where its data goes every year in the DSPT. A chatbot nobody in the building controls is a hard line to fill in.
| Public chatbot | Cloud AI with a privacy setting | Local AI in the surgery | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where complaint files and letters go | The provider’s servers | The provider’s servers | A machine in the practice |
| DSPT: who processes the data | A provider you have not assessed | A processor to assess and contract | Nobody outside the practice |
| Restricted transfers | Often, unknowingly | A mechanism to justify | None — nothing leaves the room |
| Used to train models | Depends on the plan | Usually not, per the setting | Never |
| Reads your policies and procedures | Only what is pasted in | If uploaded | Spaces with citations, imported at setup |
| Who can see what | Nobody in the practice | Per-seat accounts | Your Microsoft or Google sign-in |
What a Practice Manager Actually Uses It For
GP practice AI is usually discussed as something clinical — triage, coding, note-taking — and those sit inside the clinical system and its own governance. The paperwork that actually fills a practice manager’s week is administrative and enormous: policies and procedures to write and keep reviewed, complaint responses that must be careful, complete and inside the NHS complaints timescales, PCN and contract reporting, patient information leaflets, staff handbooks, meeting minutes, and the evidence a CQC inspection will ask to see. All of it is either patient-identifiable or practice-confidential, so none of it can casually go to a public chatbot.
Local AI gives the practice office an assistant that lives in the building. Policies, correspondence, reports and templates go into document spaces on a machine in the surgery. A receptionist can ask where the chaperone policy is and when it was reviewed, and get the page. The practice manager can draft a complaint response from the file and the complaints policy, then edit it into the practice’s own voice. A PCN manager can have the quarterly report assembled from the practices’ submissions. A partner can have a long piece of national guidance summarised against what the practice already does.
What it does not do is touch the clinical record. It does not connect to the clinical system, it is not for clinical decisions, and it is not a medical device. We say so in the training, because someone will ask it a clinical question and the answer to that is the clinical system, a clinician, or NHS 111. Private AI for GP practices, done properly, is administrative.
On governance, the practice remains the data controller, Caldicott principles and the existing retention policy keep applying, and the DSPT question about processors gains a short answer for this tool: there is not one. We act as a processor only for the support access you grant us, under a data processing agreement, and we would rather your DSPT lead or Caldicott Guardian was on the first call.
The Documents, and What Happens to Them
Every row is paperwork the practice already holds. The last row is the one we are asked about first, and the answer is always the same.
| Document | What the practice asks for | What stays where |
|---|---|---|
| Policies and procedures | Find it, check the review date, cite the page | On the machine, in the surgery |
| Complaint files | A draft response from the file and your complaints policy | On the machine, in the surgery |
| PCN and contract reporting | The quarterly report assembled from submissions | On the machine, in the surgery |
| Patient letters and leaflets | A draft in the practice’s wording | On the machine, in the surgery |
| National guidance and CQC evidence | A summary against what the practice already does | On the machine, in the surgery |
| Clinical records | Not used — stays in the clinical system | Your clinical system |
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| A dedicated machine, sized for your team, rented to you (not sold) and installed by us | A cloud subscription — nothing runs on our servers |
| £500 per month for the software and the hardware rental | Buying the hardware — the machine is rented, not sold |
| Private chat, document spaces and custom assistants on that machine | Clinical, legal or financial advice — it drafts, you decide |
| Single sign-on with your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace | A replacement for your practice, case or CRM system |
| Import of your existing documents, and training for the people using it | Phone answering — see AI Receptionist |
| Software updates, model upgrades and support from the people who installed it | Inbox automation — see Email Manager |
| Document spaces for policies, correspondence and reports, imported at setup | Any connection to your clinical system, or anything clinical at all |
From Practice Manager’s Call to a Machine in the Office
Weeks, not months. Most practices start with the policies folder or the complaints process and widen from there; PCNs usually start with one practice.
A call with the practice manager
List size, PCN role, how many staff, which paperwork goes first. We specify the machine from that and walk through the data flow with your DSPT lead.
Install and import
The machine goes on the practice network. Sign-in connects to your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Policies, templates and correspondence are imported into spaces.
Train the office, then support
We train the practice manager, reception and admin team on what it does and what it is not for, then keep the software and models current.
Where Local AI Is the Wrong Answer
We would rather lose the enquiry than the trust. Three things we tell every prospect before they sign anything.
It is not a clinical tool
Local AI is for the practice’s administrative documents. It is not connected to the clinical system, it is not for clinical decisions, and nothing about it is a medical device. Clinical questions go to a clinician.
It is slower than the big cloud models
Open-weight models on a single machine are capable for summarising, drafting and answering questions about your own documents. For frontier reasoning on hard, novel problems, the largest cloud models are still ahead. That is the trade.
It is a weeks-long install, not a sign-up
A cloud agent is live in days. Local AI needs the machine specified, delivered, installed on your network and your documents imported. Weeks, not months — but not tomorrow.
Built for a Surgery, Not a Trust
Outside the clinical record
It reads policies, correspondence and reports. The clinical system is untouched.
DSPT-shaped answers
No third-party AI processor and no transfer for the work it does. UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the ICO as regulator.
One machine in the office
Sized for the practice or the PCN, running open-weight models, on a shelf in the practice office. No server room, no IT project.
Honest about the trade
Local models are capable and somewhat slower than the largest cloud services. We say so before you sign anything.
Which Page Answers Your Practice’s Question
| If your question is… | The short answer | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| What exactly is installed? | One machine: chat, spaces, assistants, support | On-premises AI solution |
| What does our DSPT lead need? | No processor, no transfer, for the AI step | GDPR compliant AI |
| Is this what people mean by private AI? | Yes — private by construction | Private AI |
| The 8am phone queue is the real problem | A hosted agent, live in days | AI Receptionist |
| We are a dental practice, not a GP | Patient documents stay in the practice | Local AI for dental practices |
| We are in London | Installed on site across the capital | Local AI London |
| Why on-premises at all? | The case for Local AI, in full | Local AI product page |
Local AI for GP Practices: Common Questions
What does local AI do in a GP practice?
It drafts and searches the practice’s administrative documents: policies and procedures, complaint responses, PCN and contract reporting, patient information leaflets, staff handbooks and meeting minutes. Staff ask questions and get answers with the page cited, on a machine inside the surgery.
Does it connect to our clinical system?
No, and it should not. The clinical record stays in your clinical system. Local AI works on the documents around the practice — policies, correspondence, reports, leaflets — which are imported into spaces on the machine.
How does it fit with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit?
The DSPT asks you to know where data is processed and by whom. With Local AI the answer is: on a machine in the surgery, by nobody else. There is no third-party AI processor and no transfer for the work it does. Bring your DSPT lead or Caldicott Guardian to the call.
Is GP practice AI safe for complaints?
Complaint files contain patient information, which is why they cannot go to a public chatbot. On the machine, a practice manager can draft a response from the file and the practice’s complaints policy, then edit it. The response is still the practice’s, and the data never left the building.
Can it help with CQC evidence?
Policies, audits, training records and meeting minutes go into spaces, so “where is our infection control policy and when was it reviewed?” gets an answer with the page cited. It does not write the policies for you or replace the reviews.
How is it priced?
£500 per month for the software and the hardware rental. The practice rents the machine rather than buying it, so it is a predictable monthly cost, not an equipment purchase. We size it on a short call for the practice or PCN.
Put the Assistant in the Surgery
Tell us your list size and which paperwork takes the practice manager longest. One short call to size the machine, with your DSPT lead welcome on the line.
Prefer email? sghaith@businessaiagents.co.uk