What dictation software do NHS GPs and UK clinics use?

NHS general practice has no single dictation product. Practices pick a tool that fits the clinical system they already run, and the integration decides whether the text lands in the record or has to be copied across by hand. The options we found are Dragon Medical One, Lexacom for clinical dictation, and ambient AI scribes that draft the note from the consultation. If you only need to dictate letters or personal notes, a general tool is enough.

The clinical system decides which dictation tool fits

A GP practice in England records its consultations in one main clinical system, and two systems dominate the sources we read: EMIS Web and TPP SystmOne. In one integrated care board's freedom of information response from October 2025, 188 of 348 practices used SystmOne (54 percent), and 160 used EMIS Web (46 percent) ¹. That is one area, not a national count, but it shows that neither system can be assumed for a given practice.

Integration is where dictation products differ. Lexacom made a strong claim in 2017: it said it was the only digital dictation provider with full integration with every UK clinical system ². That is a vendor statement from 2017, and we found no independent check of it. Ask the supplier to show the integration working on your practice's current system version, not on a demo system.

Dragon Medical One is the clinical product our sources name most

Dragon Medical One is the clinical dictation product that appears most in the UK sources we read. Philips describes it as cloud-based clinical speech recognition for documenting care in the electronic patient record and beyond ³. Dragon is sold to UK practices through partners and resellers, and the vendor material we could open did not give a verified count of practices using it. The Dragon Medical One glossary entry explains the product, and the custom vocabulary entry covers adding the local drug names and clinic terms that a general engine often gets wrong.

AI scribes are a separate purchase, and NHS England has a registry for them

An AI scribe listens to the consultation and drafts the note, so the clinician does not dictate at all. Heidi, a scribe sold in the UK, says it covers 70,000 clinicians, 15 NHS trusts and 1,200 or more GP practices ⁴. That is the vendor's own figure. Treat it as a claim to check with a trust or ICB, not as a measure of adoption.

NHS England runs a self-certified registry of ambient voice technology suppliers. A trade report from January 2026 said the registry then listed suppliers that met its criteria. The same report says NHS England expects GPs, ICBs and acute trusts to use the registry in their due diligence checks ⁵. Check the live registry for the current list. The registry is for ambient voice technology, not for dictation tools as such. For how these tools work, see the guide to AI medical scribes, and for the term itself, the medical scribe entry.

Before a practice or clinic buys, check five things

1. The system version. Confirm the integration on the exact version your practice runs, and get the answer in writing.
2. Where audio and text go. Ask where recordings are stored, for how long, and who at the supplier can access them.
3. Local governance. For an AI scribe, check the supplier against the registry and your ICB's own requirements. The registry is one input to your due diligence, not a replacement for it.
4. Real notes. Dictate or record a week of real consultations, then count the corrections and the time spent on them.
5. The pricing unit. Ask whether the price is per user, per practice or per contract, and whether integration work is included.

When a general tool is enough

If the text is a letter or a note that you read and send yourself, a general tool is enough. The free dictation options cover that case. A practice needs the specialist route when the text must enter the clinical record without retyping, or when the organization needs a contract that sets out storage, access and audit terms. Those terms are a question for your ICB and your data protection lead, and this page does not give legal advice.

For the wider field, see the specialist dictation guide and the dictation software overview. If your practice uses another record system, the questions on Epic and eClinicalWorks cover those systems.