Patients using AI to send legal letters to GP practices, says indemnity provider

Exclusive An indemnity provider has said it is seeing an increase in the number of patients using AI to write ’25-page long’ letters to GP practices threatening legal action.

Speaking at the launch of a new white paper by Pulse and our publisher Cogora, Medical Protection deputy medical adviser Dr Sarah Townley told delegates at Pulse LIVE Birmingham that they are seeing a proliferation of complicated letters that contain legal arguments ‘that maybe don’t exist’.

The white paper, on complaints and the regulatory process, revealed that practices are seeing more patients using AI to generate complaint letters of seven pages and longer, which can be done in a matter of seconds.

However, at the panel discussion yesterday, Dr Townley said that this is not being limited to complaints, and Medical Protection is seeing this being used more for threats of legal action.

She said: ‘We’re seeing the use of AI in claims, we’re seeing it in litigation. People are bringing claims in their own name, they’re not using solicitors. These letters can be 25 pages long, quoting various legal arguments that maybe don’t even exist because it’s been generated by AI.’

Even if the claims have no legal merit, these are having major implications for practices, she said: ‘The workload being created by that is phenomenal, because you have to sift through so much more information.

‘It’s not about the severity of the complaint, that doesn’t equate to how long it is now. It can be something very simple, but then suddenly that’s now five or six pages long.’

This is also having the effect of lowering the thresholds around what patients will complain about, she said. However, she added: ‘I think most practices would much prefer to hear the patient in their own language, and then it’s much easier to decipher what the complaint is about and what the patient actually wants.

‘With AI, however, you get word soup that’s seven pages long, you then probably then have to spend more time reading it, and then probably having to contact the patient to say what actually is the complaint, what are you worried about, and go through all again. So you’re kind of doubling that workload.’

The Cogora report recommended a complaints IT system that would limit the words in the initial complaint in order to deter long, complex letters generated by AI.

Dr Katie Bramall, chair of the BMA’s GP Committee, said that this may be necessary to counter the use of AI. She told delegates: ‘Why can’t we as GPs put a [complaints form] on our website with a limited number of words, getting around a lot of the AI word soup and salad, which is much easier to now present.

‘I think there needs to be a nationalised, centralised, systematic addressing of complaints, where it is actually part of a bigger picture of the whole passage of care throughout the wider system. Patients can’t find out when their secondary care appointment is, and they can’t get through to people because the receptionists have gone at 4 o’clock and it’s a computer says no and switchboard says no mentality.’

The white paper focuses on the increase in complaints in the past few years, and its effect on GPs and practices, and discusses the use of AI.

Lee Bennett, strategic complaints lead at NHS England, who trains practices on the complaints processes, said his team is doing work on AI: ‘Some patients are using it to write letters and respond to letters from practices. This is proving quite a challenge across the NHS and other government bodies. It’s making some of the complaint letters overly complicated, confusing and in some cases inaccurate.’

As a response to this trend, the Parliamentary and Healthcare Ombudsman, has put a statement on its website suggesting useful prompts as a way of preventing overly complex letters.

RCGP president Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown said: ‘Technology, including AI, may make it easier for patients to raise concerns and improve accessibility for some, but there is also a risk it could increase the number of complaints made in the heat of the moment or without full context.

‘Complaints processes still require careful human judgement, and it’s important concerns are considered fairly, proportionately and on an individual basis.’

It comes as a Pulse survey informing the white paper found 79% of GPs experience that the growing threat of complaints has led them to practise ‘defensive medicine’, potentially worsening patient care and access to general practice.