Four standalone AI scribes and the scribes built into practice management software, compared on published pricing, integrations and the rules in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
An AI scribe listens to a consultation, with the patient's knowledge, and drafts the clinical note before the practitioner is back at the keyboard. The category has moved from novelty to mainstream in about two years: Heidi alone states that 70,000 clinicians, 15 NHS trusts and more than 1,200 GP practices use it. In Health New Zealand's Hawke's Bay pilot, documentation time fell from around 17 minutes per patient to just over four.
Most comparison guides, though, are written for hospitals or for the American market. A private allied health clinic in the UK, Australia or New Zealand has narrower questions: which AI scribes fit private practice and allied health, and what they cost per practitioner. It also matters whether the note lands in the practice management system the clinic already runs, and what the regulators in each country expect.
This guide compares the four standalone AI medical scribes private clinics shortlist most often, then the scribes already built into practice management software, the rules in each market, and how a clinic should run a trial. It sits alongside the wider guide to AI tools for private clinics and the map of how AI can help manage a clinic.
What an AI Medical Scribe Does
An AI medical scribe, also called an ambient scribe or ambient voice technology, records or listens to a consultation and turns it into a structured draft. That draft can be a clinical note in the clinic's template, a referral or patient letter, sometimes a care plan or report. The practitioner reviews the draft, corrects it and signs it into the record. Most products also take dictation for the parts of the day that happen away from patients.
Two boundaries define the category. First, a scribe documents the consultation; it does not diagnose, and in every product here the output is a draft for a clinician to approve, not an entry that files itself. Second, a scribe is not a call handler: it works inside the consultation room, not on the phone line, which is why clinics pair it with other front-desk tools rather than choosing between them.
What Private Clinics Should Check Before Choosing an AI Scribe
The products look similar in a demo. Six checks separate them in practice.
- Profession fit and templates. A scribe trained on hospital medicine can write clumsy physiotherapy or podiatry notes. PatientNotes publishes templates for more than 40 professions, Lyrebird is built around general practice, and Heidi sits somewhere between with a large template library. The free plans and trials are where a principal should test note quality in their own discipline.
- Where the note lands. A scribe that pushes the finished note into the practice management system saves a copy-and-paste per consultation. Heidi lists integrations with Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Semble, WriteUpp and TM3 among others; PatientNotes connects to Cliniko and Halaxy; Lyrebird integrates deeply with Best Practice. A clinic on any other system should check the current list before shortlisting.
- Pricing shape. Standalone scribes price per user per month, usually with a discount for annual billing, and the published band runs from £15 to £40. Free plans differ sharply: Heidi's includes unlimited transcription with standard templates, while Lyrebird's caps usage at 50 transcription or dictation actions a month.
- Data protection and hosting. The scribe processes special category data, so the clinic needs a data processing agreement, a clear answer on where audio and notes are hosted, and a stated position on whether patient data trains the vendor's models. Heidi's UK compliance page states UK-hosted data, DTAC, Cyber Essentials and DSPT alignment, and Lyrebird's UK site states Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT and UK data storage. PatientNotes states that clinics choose their data region and that patient data is not used to train AI.
- Regulatory status. A scribe that only transcribes and summarises is not a medical device in any of the three markets; one that goes further can be. Tortus is UKCA registered as a Class IIa medical device, which matters to clinics that want suggested codes and deeper clinical assistance under a regulated wrapper. The rules section below covers each country's position.
- Consent workflow. Every framework expects patients to be told what is recorded, what the output is and who sees it, before the scribe runs. The practical test of a vendor is whether it ships consent wording, an opt-out path and a patient-facing explanation the clinic can reuse.
The Best AI Scribes at a Glance
The four standalone AI scribes below are compared on their published positions as of September 2026, before the individual reviews.
| Scribe | Published price | Free plan | PMS integrations | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heidi | Paid tiers not published; 14 day trial | Yes, unlimited transcription | Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Semble, WriteUpp, TM3 and more | Adoption at NHS scale; Health NZ endorsed (enterprise) |
| Lyrebird Health | Pro $160 / mo billed annually | Yes, 50 actions a month | Best Practice (deep), Cubiko, BetterConsult | General practice depth: care plans and assessments drafted, not just notes |
| PatientNotes | £15 to £40 / user / mo | Yes, free start | Cliniko, Halaxy | Allied health templates for 40+ professions, GBP pricing published |
| Tortus | By quote | No | EHR integrations and SDK, enterprise builds | UKCA Class IIa registered medical device with an NHS evidence base |
Heidi: the Default Shortlist Entry
Heidi is the scribe most clinics meet first, and the numbers explain why: the company states it powers the largest AI scribe procurement in NHS history, with 70,000 clinicians, 15 NHS trusts and more than 1,200 GP practices. The free plan carries unlimited transcription with standard templates, and the paid Clinician and Practice tiers add coding, team template sharing and admin controls on a 14 day trial. Heidi does not publish prices for the paid tiers, so budgeting means a sales conversation.
For this audience the integration list is the draw: Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Semble, WriteUpp and TM3 all appear on Heidi's integrations page, which covers most of the systems private allied health clinics actually run. UK data is hosted in the UK, and the compliance page states DTAC, Cyber Essentials and DSPT alignment. In New Zealand, Health NZ has endorsed Heidi's enterprise version for use in its services, and pointedly not the free version, a distinction private clinics should note when they are tempted to run the free plan indefinitely.
Best for: clinics that want the widely-adopted option, a free way to test it properly, and a push into the PMS they already run.
Lyrebird Health: the General Practice Specialist
Lyrebird Health, like Heidi a Melbourne-founded company now operating in the UK, is built around general practice. Beyond consult notes it drafts referral and patient letters, certificates, care plans and assessments, and its integration with Best Practice runs deeper than the copy-paste level: notes, documents and patient context move between the two. The free plan covers 50 transcription or dictation actions a month, and the Pro plan is listed at $160 a month billed annually with a 14 day trial. The price appears in dollars even on the UK pricing page, so UK clinics should confirm the GBP rate before committing. Discounts for part-time clinicians and registrars are offered on request.
On the governance side the UK site states Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT alignment, DTAC and UK data storage. The productisation is visibly Australian in places, with items like WorkCover certificates in the feature list, but for a GP-led private practice, especially one on Best Practice, the workflow fit is the strongest here.
Best for: private GPs and GP-led clinics, above all those running Best Practice, and Australian practices wanting care plans drafted.
PatientNotes: the Allied Health Option with Published Pricing
PatientNotes is the most transparent of the four on cost: the pricing page lists Essential at £15 per user a month and Professional at £40, which adds dictation mode, unlimited templates and file uploads. A Clinic plan starts at £150 a month for five users, and the currency selector includes pounds, Australian and New Zealand dollars. Templates cover more than 40 professions, from physiotherapy and podiatry to psychology, which is why it turns up on allied health shortlists that the GP-centred scribes miss.
It connects to Cliniko and Halaxy, drafting notes, letters and reports into the patient record, and states plainly that patient data is not used to train AI models and that clinics choose their data region. For a small clinic that wants to know the price before the demo, this is the easiest comparison to run.
Best for: allied health clinics, Cliniko and Halaxy practices, and any clinic that wants published GBP pricing.
Tortus: the Regulated Enterprise Option
Tortus, built in London, has taken the opposite path to the self-serve scribes: its platform is UKCA registered as a Class IIa medical device, the first ambient voice technology to get there. The registration sits alongside ISO 13485, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus and DTAC. That regulatory footing lets it go beyond transcription into suggested codes and deeper clinical assistance, and it reports more than 2.5 million consultations across NHS organisations. Pricing is not published; private clinics and groups buy through a sales conversation, with bespoke integration work part of the offer.
For a solo practitioner, that is a heavier procurement route than the problem needs. For a multi-site group, a hospital-adjacent clinic or an operator whose insurers and lawyers ask hard questions, a registered device with an NHS evidence base answers them directly.
Best for: clinic groups and enterprise buyers that want a regulated device, procurement support and bespoke integration.
The Scribe Already Inside the Practice Management System
Before buying a standalone product, a clinic should check what its own practice management software now includes, because most vendors in this market have built or bundled a scribe. The note stays in one system, there is no second vendor to contract with, and the price is often lower.
- splose AI adds the scribe and automation layer to Splose at £22.50 a user; the Splose vs Cliniko comparison covers how it changes the pricing arithmetic.
- WriteUpp prices its AI Medical Scribe at £23.95 a user, or bundled with the Solo plan at £49.95.
- PPS Scribe is free for up to three consultations a week, a genuinely useful allowance for a part-time private caseload.
- Zanda charges £1 per transcribed hour, a usage shape that suits low-volume clinics.
- Jane sells AI Scribe Unlimited as a UK add-on at £15 per practitioner a month.
- Halaxy meters its AI Scribe through the same credit system as its SMS, at one credit per 15 minutes of transcription.
- Semble includes AI-assisted clinical notes in its platform.
Cliniko is the notable exception: it builds no scribe of its own and instead lists 13 AI note-taking apps in its connected-app directory, including Heidi and PatientNotes. The trade-off runs both ways: an in-PMS scribe is cheaper and contained, while the standalone products tend to be deeper on templates, dictation modes and document types. A clinic already paying for a PMS scribe should trial it against one standalone before adding a vendor.
Are AI Scribes Regulated? The Rules by Country
All three markets answered the same question in the last two years: when is a digital scribe a medical device? The answers have converged, and they shape what a clinic should ask any vendor.
United Kingdom
The MHRA's guidance of 29 July 2026 draws the line cleanly: products solely intended to transcribe and summarise clinical conversations, draft correspondence or suggest clinical codes for review are not medical devices. Products intended to support diagnosis, treatment or automated clinical actions are, and need the appropriate certification. NHS England's ambient scribing guidance adds the deployment expectations: a DTAC assessment, clinical safety documentation, a data protection impact assessment, and transparency with patients about what is recorded and where it goes. Outputs are reviewed and approved before anything else happens with them. Private clinics sit outside NHS procurement, but UK GDPR applies in full, and the same checklist is the sensible standard to hold a vendor to.
Australia
The TGA's digital scribes guidance, updated in January 2026, takes the same shape: a scribe that only transcribes clinical conversations into written records, without analysis or interpretation, is not a medical device. One that analyses or interprets, for example by generating a diagnosis, differential diagnosis or treatment recommendation the practitioner did not state, is a medical device and must be included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods before supply.
New Zealand
Health NZ publishes an endorsement list rather than a device ruling: Heidi's enterprise version is endorsed for use within Health NZ, explicitly not the free version, with iMedX, T-Pro and IntelliTek endorsed subject to completing privacy, security and contractual processes. Private clinics are not bound by Health NZ procurement, but the list is a useful signal of which vendors have survived a public-sector privacy and security review, and the Privacy Act applies to a private clinic's use either way.
Across all three markets, regulators allow scribes that only document the consultation, and treat products that make or suggest clinical judgements as medical devices. The clinic-side data protection work, the vendor questions, the DPIA and the consent wording, is covered in depth in Is AI Safe to Use with Patient Data?
How to Roll Out an AI Scribe in a Private Clinic
A scribe trial is cheap to run and most clinics can go from shortlist to decision inside a month.
1. Shortlist by profession and PMS
Start from the two filters above: does the vendor publish templates for the clinic's professions, and does it push notes into the practice management system in use. For most private allied health clinics that narrows the field to two or three candidates immediately.
2. Run the governance checks before the trial
Ask for the data processing agreement, the hosting locations, the model-training position and the consent wording, and complete a short data protection impact assessment. Doing this before the trial means a clinic never has to unwind a scribe the practitioners already like.
3. Trial on real templates with test consultations
Free plans from Heidi, Lyrebird and PatientNotes, and the 14 day paid trials, are enough for each practitioner to run role-played consultations in their own note format. The test is editing time: how close is the draft to signable.
4. Tell patients and switch on
Put the explanation in the appointment reminder or arrival conversation, brief the front desk on the opt-out, and start with the practitioners who volunteered. Consent friction is lowest when the wording is ready before day one.
5. Measure at 30 days
Two numbers tell the story: minutes of documentation per consultation, and notes completed on the day of the appointment. If neither has moved, the product or the templates are wrong; both are fixable before the annual bill.
Where the Scribe Stops: Calls, Bookings and the Front Desk
A scribe shortens the practitioner's paperwork, but it never touches the part of the clinic where patients are won or lost: the phone, the inbox and the diary. Those belong to a different category of clinic AI, the AI receptionist, and the two pair naturally because they work at opposite ends of the appointment.
Pair the scribe with the front desk
BookedSolid is an AI receptionist built for private clinics in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It answers calls 24/7, replies on SMS, WhatsApp, web chat and email, and books, moves and cancels appointments directly in the practice management system, with Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and Semble among its integrations. It runs alongside any scribe in this guide, since one handles the conversation with the patient before and after the appointment, and the other documents the consultation itself.
The Bottom Line
Most private clinics should start with the free plans: Heidi for the broadest fit and integration list, PatientNotes where allied health templates and published GBP pricing matter, Lyrebird for GP-led practices, especially on Best Practice. Groups and enterprise buyers that want a regulated device should talk to Tortus. Clinics on Splose, WriteUpp, PPS, Zanda, Jane, Halaxy or Semble should price the scribe already inside their system before adding a vendor. Whichever way the trial goes, the constants are the same: the practitioner signs every note, the paperwork is agreed with the vendor before the trial, and patients are told about the scribe before it is used.
Sort the notes, then sort the phones
An AI scribe hands practitioners their evenings back. BookedSolid does the same for the front desk: every call answered, every channel covered, bookings made straight into the PMS. See how the two fit together in a 20 minute walkthrough.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an AI medical scribe?
An AI medical scribe, also called an ambient scribe, listens to a consultation and drafts the clinical note, letter or report in the clinic's template for the practitioner to review and sign. Most products also take dictation. The output is always a draft: the practitioner remains responsible for what enters the patient record.
How much does an AI scribe cost for a private clinic?
Published per-user pricing runs from £15 to £40 a month: PatientNotes lists £15 (Essential) and £40 (Professional), and Lyrebird lists its Pro plan at $160 a month billed annually. Heidi does not publish paid-tier prices but offers a free plan with unlimited transcription. Scribes built into practice management systems can be cheaper still, from PPS Scribe's free tier to £22.50 a user for splose AI, with Zanda at £1 per transcribed hour. Enterprise products such as Tortus are priced by quote.
Are AI scribes medical devices in the UK?
Under the MHRA's July 2026 guidance, a scribe solely intended to transcribe and summarise clinical conversations, draft correspondence or suggest codes for review is not a medical device. Products intended to support diagnosis, treatment or automated clinical actions are medical devices and need the appropriate certification, which is the footing Tortus has taken with its UKCA Class IIa registration. Australia's TGA draws the same line, with qualifying scribes required to be on the ARTG.
Do patients have to be told about an AI scribe?
NHS England's ambient scribing guidance expects transparency before processing: patients should know what is being recorded, what the output will be, and who will use and store it, through privacy notices and a direct conversation. The same expectation is built into Health NZ's endorsement conditions, and it is good practice for any private clinic in all three markets. In practical terms, the wording goes in the appointment reminder or the arrival conversation, with an opt-out honoured on the spot.
Are free AI scribe plans safe for a clinic to use?
Free plans are legitimate trial routes offered by the vendors themselves, but they can differ from paid tiers in more than limits. Health NZ makes the point sharply by endorsing Heidi's enterprise version while explicitly not endorsing the free version. Before running any free plan on real consultations, a clinic should hold it to the same checks as a paid one: a data processing agreement, known hosting locations, and a stated position on whether patient data trains the vendor's models.
Which AI scribe works with Cliniko?
Cliniko builds no scribe of its own and instead lists 13 AI note-taking apps in its connected-app directory, including Heidi and PatientNotes, which both push drafted notes into the Cliniko patient record. Heidi's integration list also covers Nookal, Halaxy, Semble, WriteUpp and TM3, so most private allied health clinics can have notes land in their system directly.
Can an AI scribe answer the clinic's phone?
A scribe works inside the consultation, drafting notes and letters, and stops at the consulting room door. Answering calls, handling messages and booking appointments is the job of an AI receptionist such as BookedSolid, which books directly into systems including Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and Semble. Many clinics run both, because together they cover the appointment from first call to signed note.
