Thorpewood Medical Group will replace its e-Consult platform and end the call queue system when it introduces Anima, a new online consultation tool, and Andi AI, a virtual care navigator, from Monday 28 September 2026. The Thorpe St Andrew practice confirmed the change on its website the day before, promising live demonstrations and further guidance ahead of the launch.
The new system means residents will access the surgery digitally through Anima’s platform, using either NHS App login details or a standalone account, with requests accepted from 6am each weekday. Meanwhile, Andi AI will field incoming calls—asking patients about their symptoms and routing the details directly to the Care Navigation team—removing the need to wait in a call queue. The practice aims to respond to all queries the same day.
The switch marks the final phase of an appointment overhaul that started in April following patient survey feedback that a 28-day wait to see a GP was unacceptably long. The practice initially cut the maximum wait to 21 days and suspended routine appointments for a week in June to allow for the transition. In March, ahead of the formal rollout, Healthwatch Norfolk and the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board ran a public survey on digital tools in the NHS, gathering opinion on artificial intelligence in healthcare.
The Anima platform is already used by other GP surgeries in England, including Swan Surgery, which has operated it for over a year and reports that most patients using the system say it has had a positive impact. NHS England has endorsed total digital triage as a way to ease the 8am rush for appointments and to help practices manage rising demand with a shrinking GP workforce.
About this article: This story was put together with the help of AI tools and checked by a real person on our team. We're a small crew trying to cover as much of the UK as we can on a limited budget. We're getting better every day - but we're not perfect yet. If something looks off, let us know. You're part of the process.
