A WhatsApp and Voice Agent That Answers Every Patient Call

Summerhill Health is a private diagnostic imaging network with nine centres across Greater Manchester and Cheshire, offering MRI, CT, ultrasound and X-ray to self-paying patients and through insurers and NHS referrals. Its central booking team of fourteen handled over 1,500 calls and messages a day. Long hold times meant patients abandoned calls, and many scans were delayed because pre-scan safety questionnaires weren't completed in time.

• 01

  Long waits.

  Patients waited an average of six minutes on hold, and a quarter hung up.

• 02

  Repetitive questions.

  Most calls were about prices, preparation, directions or moving an appointment.

• 03

  Incomplete paperwork.

  MRI safety questionnaires were often missing on the day, causing delays and cancellations.

• 04

  Missed appointments.

  No-shows left expensive scanner time unused.

We deployed an AI agent that works on both phone and WhatsApp. It answers instantly, understands what the patient needs, and handles common requests end to end: booking and rescheduling scans against live scanner availability, explaining preparation, sharing prices and directions, and answering insurer questions. After booking, it sends the MRI safety questionnaire on WhatsApp and follows up until it's complete, flagging any safety answers for a radiographer. Reminders go out 48 hours and on the morning of the scan, with one-tap confirm or reschedule. Anything clinical or sensitive goes straight to a human with the full conversation attached.

• Voice agent

  Natural phone conversations with instant answer and no menus.

• WhatsApp agent

  Booking, rescheduling and FAQs in the patient's chat.

• Live scheduling

  Two-way sync with the RIS booking system for all nine centres.

• Pre-scan questionnaires

  Guided MRI safety forms with risk answers flagged to staff.

• Human handover

  Clinical, complaint and complex cases passed to staff with context.

1. 1

   Clinical safety

   The agent must never give medical advice. We built strict guardrails and a clinical-topic detector that hands over immediately.

2. 2

   Legacy booking system

   The RIS had a limited API. We built an integration layer that syncs availability every 30 seconds.

3. 3

   Data protection

   Patient data is processed in UK-region Azure with GDPR-aligned retention and consent capture.

1. Weeks 1–2

   01 Discovery

   Analysed 5,000 anonymised call and message logs to find the top request types.

2. Weeks 3–4

   02 Design

   Wrote conversation flows and safety rules with the clinical governance lead.

3. Weeks 5–9

   03 Build

   Built the voice and WhatsApp agents, RIS integration and staff console.

4. Weeks 10–11

   04 Pilot

   Ran at two centres, reviewing every handover and failed conversation.

5. Week 12 onward

   05 Roll-out & improve

   Extended to all nine centres with weekly tuning.

Patients now get an answer immediately at any hour, and most never need to speak to the booking team. Staff focus on referrals, insurer queries and patients who need a human. Completed questionnaires and reminders turned previously wasted scanner slots into billable scans.