The AI Care Navigator, an evolution of Patchs AI, gives your practice greater control over patient request processing.
By combining the capabilities of Patchs AI, and integrating Patchs Health Hub information pages, it offers a more integrated, comprehensive, and powerful solution.
Included Patchs AI modules
The AI Care Navigator combines the following AI modules to enable you to streamline and tailor your triage process:
- Urgency AI: Flags urgent or emergency requests as soon as they are submitted.
- Topic AI: Identifies clinical topics within requests and can be used to ask patients further questions.
- Assign AI: assigns requests to a ‘Clinical’ inbox if they need input from a clinician.
- Face-to-Face (F2F) highlights requests that may need an in-person consultation and will be added to the AI Care Navigator soon.
Designed to automate and tailor your triage process
The AI Care Navigator includes 50+ pathways that come as standard that automatically trigger messages based on patient age, gender, and clinical topics of the request, such as:
- Clinical questionnaires for conditions like depression, abdominal pain, back pain, diarrhoea, headache, palpitations, skin lesions, sore throat, and UTIs to aid triage and information-gathering.
- Messages signposting patients to other services, like dentists or mental health services, when appropriate.
- Self-care advice from Patchs Health Hub, for conditions like insomnia and back pain.
- Requests for photos for skin issues if not already provided by the patient.
- Direct integration with the Pharmacy First scheme, guiding patients to online or in-person pharmacies for any of the seven included conditions.
- Safety netting and follow-up advice after your consultation (coming soon).
You can also customise the AI Care Navigator to meet the specific needs and pathways of your practice or PCN. For example, you can set up rules to:
- Send a self-book link to patients with routine knee pain for an in-person appointment with your First Contact Physio.
- Signpost a patient identified with low risk depression to your local IAPT service.other services, like dentists or mental health services, when appropriate.
- Collect patient information through clinical questionnaires you create, tailored to conditions covered by your local pathways.
- Automatic workflow requests to specific teams by assigning them to their own inboxes (coming soon).
Supporting Your October 2025 Contract Requirements
You can customise the AI Care Navigator to meet the specific requirements of the October 2025 GP Contract. This article explains how 💪
AI Care Navigator settings
Patchs Admin Users should go to your Feature Settings page. If you have at least one of the relevant AI modules already enabled, you will see a box to enable the AI Care Navigator:
Once you have enabled it by checking the tick-box, the AI Care Navigator will appear as an additional tab on your Feature Settings page.
Customising AI Care Navigator pathways
In the AI Care Navigator tab on the feature settings page, you can create your own pathways to suit your practice and delete existing ones that don't (including our default pathways).
To create your own pathway, select Add new action:
Available Conditions for Rules
AI Outcomes
Besides different AI outcomes, age and sex at birth, can also be part of the inclusion criteria to enhance the relevance of each questionnaire to specific patient groups.
- Urgency AI (Emergency, Urgent, Non-urgent)
- Topic AI (specific health topics)
- Assign AI (Clinical, Non-Clinical)
- Face-to-Face AI (Face-to-face, Remote)
Request Types
You can also build rules based on the type of request submitted:
- New health problem
- Ongoing health problem
- Admin request
- Medication request
- Other
You can add as many conditions ('If' values) as you like.
Configuring Actions
When you have selected all the conditions required to create the rule, select an action. Currently you can send a:
- Message template - a standard Patchs template or one you've created yourself
- Self-book link - to offer patients appointments for specific clinics
- Free text message - you type yourself
🚀 More actions will be available soon, such as automatically work flowing requests to specific teams by assigning them to their own inboxes and suggesting safety netting and follow-up advice after your consultation.
Then, select an action:
Patient Cancellation Options - Allow Patients to Cancel
When creating Care Navigator actions, you can allow patients to cancel their request if the provided information resolves their query and they no longer need to submit it. This is particularly useful when providing self-care advice or signposting information.
Available for:
- Reply not required free text messages
- Reply not required message templates
- Self-book appointments
When enabled, patients see both "Cancel" and "Continue" buttons after viewing the action message.
Patient Cancellation Options - Force Cancel Requests
For situations where certain types of requests cannot be handled (for example, urgent requests outside of safe handling hours), you can force cancellation with a clear message directing patients to appropriate care.
Available for:
- Reply not required free text messages
- Reply not required message templates
When enabled, patients only see the "Cancel" button after viewing the reply not required message.
On clicking the "Cancel" button, they are shown your custom safety message.
Note: Force cancel is not available when "Apply to all requests" is selected.
💡Force cancel when submitting requests on behalf of a patient
If you submit a request on behalf of a patient, then you will be given the option to cancel their request (like in 'Allow cancel' above), meaning that you can still continue to submit the request. This is to ensure practices using total triage can still submit urgent requests on behalf of patients at all times. For requests submitted by patients, they will still be forced to cancel their request.
Show Patient Message Upfront
When using force cancel, you can optionally display a warning message to patients before they begin writing their request, informing them that certain types of requests cannot be handled at this time.
When enabled, before making their request, patients see a warning message informing them that certain types of requests cannot be handled at this time
Time Windows
You can set specific time windows for when Care Navigator actions should be active. This allows you to have different rules for different parts of the day.
Options include:
- Specific hours (set start and end times between 00:00 and 23:59)
- Active on weekends
- Active on bank holidays
To add multiple time windows, create separate rules. Clock icons in the Action order view show time window details when hovered over.
Other Action Options
'Apply to all requests' If you tick this option the message will be shown to all patients every time they submit a request. For example, if you want all patients to answer questions about their smoking status or alcohol intake, you can tick this box for the ‘Smoking status’ and ‘AUDIT-C’ questionnaires.
'Patients can decline to complete these messages if they think it’s not relevant to their request' Will be ticked by default so patients can decline to answer a questionnaire if they think it's irrelevant to their request. If you untick this box, patients must always complete the questionnaire.
Each message is only shown once in a request. So if multiple conditions are met in the same request that are associated with the same question/questionnaire, the patient will not receive that question/questionnaire multiple times.
Example 1: Creating a rule for patients that mention arthritis or back pain.
Example 2: Creating a rule for patients that mention knee pain is sent a standardised questionnaire. To do this, select Send message template from the Action field dropdown menu. Then choose the questionnaire template you wish to use.
Ordering of AI Care Navigator rules
If a rule triggers a questionnaire that can mark a patient request as either 'urgent' or 'emergency', then only rules for 'urgent' or 'emergency' requests will be triggered after that.
We have set up the default AI Care Navigator for Pharmacy First so that rules for questionnaires, like the UTI questionnaire, are triggered before the Pharmacy First message. That way, Pharmacy First messages are not triggered in medical emergencies.
If you’re adding an action for patient requests that are NOT 'urgent' or 'emergencies', make sure rules that trigger relevant questionnaires go first.
For example, if you want to offer patients with back pain (without red flags) a self-book link for a First Contact Physio:
- Set the 'Back pain (history + red flags)' questionnaire to trigger first
- Then, set the rule that triggers a self-book link
This ensures that if the questionnaire identifies a red flag emergency, the self-book link won’t be sent.
You can change the order in which pathways, including message templates, are presented to patients by selecting 'Change action order' and dragging them up and down the list.
Important: Actions are processed sequentially. If a patient cancels their request at any point, no further actions in the list will be triggered.
Managing Cancelled Requests
All cancelled requests appear in a dedicated "Cancelled Inbox" for review and audit purposes. This provides a complete audit trail of all requests that were cancelled by patients or blocked by the Care Navigator. The inbox is also particularly useful when patients phone the practice after cancelling their request - staff can quickly access the original request details so the patient won't need to repeat all their information again
If a patient was previously blocked by Care Navigator actions and attempts to submit another request, staff will see a warning message alerting them to this history.
Included pathways
There are certain templates we recommend as standard in the table below. Some of these will trigger the Urgency and Signpost AIs if certain answers are given by patients.
Where possible, we try to recommend questionnaires that have an extensive evidence base and usage in clinical care (e.g. PHQ-9, asthma control, FeverPAIN).
The AI Care Navigator includes 50+ pathways that come as standard that automatically trigger messages based on patient age, gender, and clinical topics of the request, detailed below. Each of these can pathways can be disabled if they don't work for your practice.
| Topic | Message | Urgency + Signpost AI triggers |
| Abdominal pain (for female) | Abdominal pain – female questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Abdominal pain (for male) | Abdominal pain – male questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| ADHD | ADHD self report scale questionnaire | Nil |
| Alcohol | AUDIT | Nil |
| Anxiety | GAD-7 questionnaire | Nil |
| Asthma |
Asthma control test - Child questionnaire (4-11 years) or Asthma control test - Adult questionnaire (12 years and over) |
Nil |
| Autism | Autistic Spectrum Quotient questionnaire | Nil |
| Back pain | Back pain (history + red flags) questionnaire | Emergency - if patient has any red flag symptoms |
| Contraceptive Pill (COCP) | Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill (COCP) Review |
Emergency – if systolic blood pressure is 170 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure is 115 mmHg. Urgent – if results suggest stage 2 hypertension i.e. systolic blood pressure is 150 mmHg or higher, or diastolic blood pressure is 95 mmHg or higher. |
| COPD | COPD Review | Nil |
|
Conjunctivitis |
Conjunctivitis - Child and adult (1 year and over) questionnaire or Conjunctivitis - Baby (under 1 year) questionnaire |
Nil |
| Cough | Cough questionnaire | Emergency - if patient indicate they are breathlessness or coughing up blood. |
| Dental | Dentist Re-direction advice | Nil |
| Depression | PHQ-9 questionnaire | Emergency - if patient answers positively to final question about self-harm or suicide |
| Diarrhoea | Diarrhoea questionnaire |
Emergency if:
|
| Earache (0-17 years) | Earache - child questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Earache (18 years and over) | Earache - adult questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Earache (1 to 17 years, NOT emergency) | Pharmacy First message for acute otitis media (if enabled) |
Nil |
| Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux (GORD, Indigestion) | Gastro-oesophageal Reflux (GORD, Indigestion) questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Headache (1-11 years) | Headache - child questionnaire |
Emergency if:
Urgent if:
|
| Headache (12 years and over) | Headache – young person and adult questionnaire |
Emergency if:
Urgent if:
|
| Heart Failure | Heart failure functional capacity (NYHA classification) |
Nil |
| Heart palpitations | Palpitations questionnaire |
Emergency - if the patient has:
Urgent - if the patient has:
|
| Hip pain | Oxford Hip Score |
Nil |
| HRT | HRT Review |
Emergency – if systolic blood pressure is 170 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure is 115 mmHg. Urgent – if results suggest stage 2 hypertension i.e. systolic blood pressure is 150 mmHg or higher, or diastolic blood pressure is 95 mmHg or higher. |
| Impetigo (1 year and over, NOT emergency) | Pharmacy First message for impetigo (if enabled) | Nil |
| Insect Bite (1 year and over, NOT emergency) | Pharmacy First message for infected insect bite (if enabled) | Nil |
| Knee pain |
Oxford Knee Score |
Nil |
| Medication review | Medication review questionnaire | Nil |
|
Periods - Heavy (Menorrhagia)
|
Periods - Heavy (Menorrhagia) questionnaire
|
Emergency – if the patient answers ‘Yes’ to the question: ‘Do you feel short of breath after doing normal activities?’ Urgent – if the patient answers ‘Yes’ to:
|
| POP | POP Review |
Emergency – if systolic blood pressure is 170 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure is 115 mmHg. Urgent – if results suggest stage 2 hypertension i.e. systolic blood pressure is 150 mmHg or higher, or diastolic blood pressure is 95 mmHg or higher. |
| Prostate | IPSS questionnaire | Nil |
| Rash | Rash questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Shingles | Shingles (Pharmacy First) questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
|
| Shingles (18 years and over, NOT emergency) | Pharmacy First message for shingles (if enabled) | Nil |
| Sinusitis | Sinusitis (Pharmacy First) - Adults questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
|
| Sinusitis (12 years and over, NOT emergency) | Pharmacy First message for sinusitis (if enabled) | Nil |
| Shortness of breath | Shortness of breath (SoB) questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
| Sick note | Sick / Fit note details questionnaire | Nil |
| Skin lesion | Attach photo + warning | Nil |
| Skin lesion | Skin lesion questionnaire | Nil |
| Sleepiness | Epworth Sleepiness Scale | Nil |
| Smoking | Smoking status questionnaire | Nil |
| Snoring | Epworth Sleepiness Scale | Nil |
| Sore throat | FeverPAIN questionnaire + Attach Photo (tonsils) question | Urgent - if patient scores 4 or more on the FeverPAIN questionnaire |
| Sore Throat (5 years and over, NOT emergency)
|
Pharmacy First message for sore throat (if enabled) |
Nil |
| Tired All the Time |
Tired All the Time questionnaire |
Urgent if the patient has:
|
|
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) - male or female
|
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) – male or female questionnaire
|
Emergency – if the patient answers ‘Yes’ to: 'Can you see blood in your urine?’ Urgent – if the patient answers ‘Yes’ to the following questions (and ‘no’ to the above question):
|
|
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) - female, 16-64 years, NOT emergency |
Pharmacy First message for UTI (if enabled) | Nil |
| Vaginal discharge | Vaginal discharge questionnaire | Nil |
|
Vomiting, Diarrhoea and vomiting |
Vomiting questionnaire |
Emergency if the patient has:
Urgent if the patient has:
|
Clinical Validation
The AI Care Navigator has been validated through scientific studies conducted by the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge. These studies demonstrate that our AI achieves the same accuracy as an experienced GP across a range of triage and care navigation decisions, providing a reliable and clinically-safe filter for incoming patient requests.
Support
For assistance with configuring the AI Care Navigator or questions about implementing these features for your practice's specific needs, please contact our support team on support@patchs.ai