Case Study: NHS Lothian achieves 50% faster triage with NICE Systems' NEVA automation

NICE Automation Optimizes Triage for the Second Largest Health Authority in the UK

NHS Lothian, the UK’s second-largest health authority serving Edinburgh and surrounding regions, faced growing pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, an aging population and a backlog of specialist referrals—patients in some specialties were waiting up to 52 weeks. The gastroenterology department alone receives about 16,000 new referrals a year, creating a need to reduce wait times, improve accuracy and free clinicians from routine administrative tasks.

NICE deployed its NEVA attended and unattended automation to assist clinicians directly within TRAKCare, automating routine triage steps, populating communications and updating records. The pilot cut end-to-end triage time by roughly 50% (from ~20 to ~10 minutes), reduced unnecessary appointments by 27%, freed staff for higher-value work, improved patient experience and generated process intelligence that is now driving wider automation rollout across NHS Lothian and informing broader NHS initiatives.

NHS Lothian

Paul Schofield

Head of Digital Innovation