What is Signpost AI?
Signpost AI shows messages to patients when they submit a request that may be more appropriately dealt with by themselves, or by another healthcare provider. There are three types of signpost message:
- Emergencies: Patients submitting a request that could be a medical emergency are shown the 'Emergency signpost message' and advised to call 999 or go to A+E.
- Urgent OOH: Patients submitting a request that could be medically urgent on a weekday outside 8AM to 6.30PM, or on a weekend or bank holiday, are shown the 'Urgent OOH signpost message' and advised to call 111 or go to 111.nhs.uk.
- Non-urgent: Patients submitting a non-urgent health problem request are shown the 'Non-urgent signpost message', which aims to support self-care or the use of other non-urgent care providers, such as pharmacies or opticians.
Each message may show up to five information links from NHS.uk to provide further context and detail to the patient. After seeing the signpost message, patients have the option to either cancel their request or continue to submit it to your practice:
- Cancelled messages are still viewable by the patient in their 'My requests and messages' page. You can also view them at any time in your 'Cancelled' inbox.
- Submitted messages come into your Unassigned inbox (or Clinical inbox if you have Assign AI switched on) as normal.
When you see a signpost message you able able to provide feedback on each information link shown to the patient and the appropriateness of the signpost message overall.
Signpost AI video
What is the Emergency signpost message?
Based on the information you have entered, you may need emergency medical help. If this is a medical emergency you should cancel this request and call 999, or go to your local A&E immediately. Click the links below for information from the NHS related to your query. (Please note, some may not be relevant.)
- NHS.uk link 1
- NHS.uk link 2
- NHS.uk link 3...
Would you still like to submit your request to your GP practice at your own risk? If OOH: Please note, your GP practice is currently closed and will not see your message until they are next open. Their opening hours are 9am till 5pm Monday - Friday.*
[No, I will call 999 or go to A&E] / [Yes, I would still like to contact my GP practice at my own risk]
*NB these are example opening hours - your practice's actual opening hours will always be displayed.
What is the Urgent OOH signpost message?
Based on the information you have entered, you may need urgent medical help. If you need urgent medical help you should cancel this request and call 111, or go to 111.nhs.uk immediately - because your GP practice is currently closed. Click the links below for information from the NHS related to your query. (Please note, some may not be relevant.)
- NHS.uk link 1
- NHS.uk link 2
- NHS.uk link 3...
Would you still like to submit your request to your GP practice at your own risk? Please note, your GP practice is currently closed and will not see your message until they are next open. Their opening hours are 9am till 5pm Monday - Friday.*
[No, I will call 111 or go to 111.nhs.uk] / [Yes, I would still like to contact my GP practice at my own risk]
*NB these are example opening hours - your practice's actual opening hours will always be displayed.
What is the Non-urgent signpost message?
Click the links below to see the information. (Please note, some may not be relevant.)
- NHS.uk link 1
- NHS.uk link 2
- NHS.uk link 3
- NHS.uk link 4
- NHS.uk link 5
Would you still like to submit your request to your GP practice? If OOH: Please note, your GP practice is currently closed and will not see your message until they are next open. Their opening hours are 9am till 5pm Monday - Friday.*
[No, this information has resolved my query] / [Yes, I would still like to contact my GP practice]
*NB these are example opening hours - your practice's actual opening hours will always be displayed.
What are the benefits of Signpost AI?
The aim of Signpost AI is to help patients get help from the most appropriate place sooner. This can improve patient safety and relieve workload on your GP practice.
How does Signpost AI work?
Signpost AI uses predictions from Urgency AI to determine the urgency of the patient request. It then uses predictions from Topic AI to search for the most relevant pages on NHS.uk to present to the patient based on their request.
Providing feedback on Signpost AI
You can provide feedback on Signpost AI in three different ways to improve the quality of its future messages to patients:
1. The appropriateness of the signposting message. If you think the patient was correctly shown a signposting message (e.g. they were correctly advised to go to A+E or to self-care) then click the green 'thumb up' icon. If you think they were incorrectly shown a signposting message (e.g. advised to self-care when they should have spoken to a GP, or advised to go to A+E for a self-care condition) then click the red 'thumb down' icon.
2. The relevance of each individual NHS.uk information link. Click the green 'thumb up' icon if you think that particular NHS.uk information link was relevant to the patients' query, and click the red 'thumb down' icon if you think it wasn't.
3. Triage decision. When answering the question ‘Ideally, who do you think should have dealt with this message?’ you can choose the most appropriate outcome e.g. patient themselves, pharmacist, OOH service, or A&E / 999.
Overriding Signpost AI messages
By default, Signpost AI does not block patients from submitting requests, even in potential medical emergencies.
If patients choose to override Signpost AI messages and continue to submit their request to your GP practice, they agree to do this ‘at their own risk’. The reason we allow patients to override Signpost AI messages is because if they couldn't they might:
- Submit another request with different answers so it is not picked up by Signpost AI as urgent or emergency. This is a risk because you will not know the patient’s true symptoms.
- Telephone your practice causing queues and creating delays in care for both themselves and others
- Not seek care at all.
This is back up by the experience of NHS Digital (now NHS England) and research evidence.
On request, we can allow practices to prevent patients from overriding Signpost AI messages as long as they understand and accept the additional risks this could introduce. In this situation, when patients see an emergency or urgent out of hours Signpost AI message, they can only cancel their request – there is no option for them to submit their request to your practice at their own risk.
You are also shown a message in any new requests that the patient submits in the same login session that they have previously been signposted to 111 or emergency services, with a link to view the previous request in the ‘Cancelled’ inbox described above.