GP practices
Use AI in your UK GP surgery without exposing patient data
Use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot for referrals, letters and complaint replies. Names, DOBs and NHS numbers are redacted on your PC.
No sign-up, no card · Installs in a minute
One tool for the whole surgery
Referrals, recall letters, practice spreadsheets and ID: Nonimo redacts patient details on every computer in the practice.
Nonimo in the centre redacting a made-up referral, with four uses around it: one key in Word or Outlook, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini through the Chrome and Safari extension, letters and practice spreadsheets, and passports for patient registration.
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Highlight the referral, press one key and the patient becomes [PERSON_1] before AI reads it.
See it in an email → -
Recall lists in Excel, discharge summaries in PDF, letters in Word: redacted before upload.
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Letters pasted in are redacted by the Chrome or Safari extension, working with the app on Mac or Windows.
Try the extension → -
Cover the passport fields registration does not need and mark the copy for the practice only.
Cover a passport → -
When your firm's own software talks to an AI provider by API, Nonimo Gateway holds the personal data back on your server before each call.
Discover the Gateway →
[nonimo]
Email · Outlook
Your original
Dear colleague, please see Mr Bartholomew Quillenden, our ref. RF-2026-0428.
Sent to the AI
Dear colleague, please see Mr [PERSON_1], our ref. [REFERENCE_1].
recalls.xlsx · row 27
Your original
Patient: Cordelia Waxenby · Mobile: 07700 900582 · Ref.: RC-2026-0613
Sent to the AI
Patient: [PERSON_1] · Mobile: [PHONE_1] · Ref.: [REFERENCE_1]
Nonimo Gateway
Your original
Summarise the complaint from Ffion Aldermere and send a reply to ffion.a@example.co.uk today.
Sent to the AI
Summarise the complaint from [PERSON_1] and send a reply to [EMAIL_1] today.
Passport · data page
The AI never sees your dataReversibleNo cloud involved
Ask about the care, not the patient
The AI writes with labels. You get the letter back with the patient's details, ready for the clinical system.
With the extension, in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: you send a request for a referral, a recall letter or a reply to a complaint, with a made-up patient's name, email or mobile and reference. Nonimo swaps each one for a label and the AI writes with the labels. One click copies the result with the real details, and a panel underneath shows the letter as it will go out. With the key, from Word or email: you redact an email from a patient, paste it into an AI assistant, and a second press copies its reply with the real details.
Write a referral to cardiology: six months of exertional chest pain, normal ECG. Patient: Cordelia Waxenby[PERSON_1] Email: c.waxenby@example.com[EMAIL_1] Ref.: RF-2026-0731[REFERENCE_1]
Ref: RF-2026-0731[REFERENCE_1] Dear colleague, Thank you for seeing Cordelia Waxenby[PERSON_1], who has a six-month history of exertional chest pain with a normal ECG. The patient prefers contact at c.waxenby@example.com[EMAIL_1].
Ref: RF-2026-0731[REFERENCE_1] Dear colleague, Thank you for seeing Cordelia Waxenby[PERSON_1], who has a six-month history of exertional chest pain with a normal ECG. The patient prefers contact at c.waxenby@example.com[EMAIL_1].
The patient's details are back, on the practice computer.Ask the patient to book their yearly asthma check with the practice nurse, including an inhaler check. Patient: Ignatius Fallowfield[PERSON_1] Mobile: 07700 900374[PHONE_1] Ref.: AR-2026-0518[REFERENCE_1]
Ref: AR-2026-0518[REFERENCE_1] Dear Ignatius Fallowfield[PERSON_1], It is time for your yearly asthma check with our practice nurse, who will also look at how you use your inhaler. If booking online is tricky, we can ring you on 07700 900374[PHONE_1].
Ref: AR-2026-0518[REFERENCE_1] Dear Ignatius Fallowfield[PERSON_1], It is time for your yearly asthma check with our practice nurse, who will also look at how you use your inhaler. If booking online is tricky, we can ring you on 07700 900374[PHONE_1].
The patient's details are back, on the practice computer.Draft a reply to a complaint about waiting on the phone at 8am. Patient: Millicent Ravensholt[PERSON_1] Email: m.ravensholt@example.org[EMAIL_1] Ref.: PC-2026-0246[REFERENCE_1]
To: m.ravensholt@example.org[EMAIL_1] Re: your complaint, ref. PC-2026-0246[REFERENCE_1] Dear Millicent Ravensholt[PERSON_1], Thank you for telling us about the wait on the phone. We have added staff at 8am and now offer online booking as well.
To: m.ravensholt@example.org[EMAIL_1] Re: your complaint, ref. PC-2026-0246[REFERENCE_1] Dear Millicent Ravensholt[PERSON_1], Thank you for telling us about the wait on the phone. We have added staff at 8am and now offer online booking as well.
The patient's details are back, on the practice computer.Write a referral to cardiology: six months of exertional chest pain, normal ECG. Patient: Cordelia Waxenby[PERSON_1] Email: c.waxenby@example.com[EMAIL_1] Ref.: RF-2026-0731[REFERENCE_1]
Ask the patient to book their yearly asthma check with the practice nurse, including an inhaler check. Patient: Ignatius Fallowfield[PERSON_1] Mobile: 07700 900374[PHONE_1] Ref.: AR-2026-0518[REFERENCE_1]
Draft a reply to a complaint about waiting on the phone at 8am. Patient: Millicent Ravensholt[PERSON_1] Email: m.ravensholt@example.org[EMAIL_1] Ref.: PC-2026-0246[REFERENCE_1]
Hello, Could I have my repeat prescription sent to a different pharmacy this month? My ref. is RX-2026-0867[REFERENCE_1]. Many thanks, Algernon Swinbrooke[PERSON_1] 07700 900195[PHONE_1]
Hello, Could I have my repeat prescription sent to a different pharmacy this month? My ref. is RX-2026-0867[REFERENCE_1]. Many thanks, Algernon Swinbrooke[PERSON_1] 07700 900195[PHONE_1]
Dear Algernon Swinbrooke[PERSON_1], Of course. We have updated the nominated pharmacy on RX-2026-0867[REFERENCE_1] and will text 07700 900195[PHONE_1] when the prescription is ready to collect.
Dear Algernon Swinbrooke[PERSON_1], Of course. We have updated the nominated pharmacy on RX-2026-0867[REFERENCE_1] and will text 07700 900195[PHONE_1] when the prescription is ready to collect.
The patient's details are back, on the practice computer.A referral letter, before and after
The patient, the date of birth and the NHS number become tags. The clinical history you want help with reaches the AI in full.
Before: what gets pasted
Dear colleague, Re: Mr Joe Bloggs DOB: 30/02/1970 NHS No: 999 234 5675 Thank you for seeing this gentleman with a six-month history of exertional chest pain.
After: what the AI receives
Dear colleague, Re: Mr [PERSON_1] DOB: [BIRTH_DATE_1] NHS No: [NHS_NUMBER_1] Thank you for seeing this gentleman with a six-month history of exertional chest pain.
What the Information Commission says about who decides
The Information Commission suggests a SIRO can own the key decisions. Whatever your practice decides about AI, Nonimo gives staff a step they can see on every computer.
For the whole practice team
Start with the medical secretary or practice manager who already writes letters in ChatGPT, then add the rest of the surgery.
One computer in a minute
Install the app on a Mac or Windows PC and try it on a referral you make up.
Every room at once
Your IT provider deploys the extension by policy, so reception, admin and clinical PCs all redact what is pasted.
Easy for your SIRO or IG lead
Whoever owns information governance can see what is redacted in an afternoon.
The detail for GP practices
The letters that end up in the chat, what the AI sees after the key, who owns the decision, and the price.
AI for GP practices: the letters that end up in the chat
AI for GP practices rarely touches the clinical system. What gets pasted is a letter: a referral to shorten, a discharge summary to put in plain English, the reply to a complaint the practice manager has been drafting since Tuesday.
Each letter opens with a few lines that point to one person, and the chat receives them first: the patient’s name, date of birth, address and NHS number. In Scotland the number is the CHI number, and in Northern Ireland the H&C number, because the NHS number itself covers England, Wales and the Isle of Man. Nonimo recognises all three, so a practice in Glasgow or Belfast is covered too. A discharge summary coming back from the trust adds the postcode, and that becomes a tag as well.
The question, then, is what is still in the letter when it arrives. The provider keeps what it receives on its own terms, and our guide to how OpenAI keeps and shares a UK user’s chats sets those terms out. Nonimo works one step earlier, on the practice computer.
Can GP practices use ChatGPT? What the AI sees after the key
A GP practice that allows it can use ChatGPT once the patient’s details are out of the letter. Mark the passage and press the key: the details Nonimo spots become tags such as PERSON_1, and only the tagged letter travels.
When the answer returns, the tags are filled back in so that the GP reads it with the patient’s real details. The same happens on Mac and on Windows. More on our security page.
You see everything: every redacted detail is marked on screen and comes back with one click. Names, dates of birth and the NHS number become tags such as PERSON_1 or BIRTH_DATE_1, so the assistant still knows what kind of detail stood there. Whoever pastes sees the tagged letter exactly as the assistant will read it.
In the made-up referral below, the patient’s name, date of birth and NHS number are tagged. The greeting and the clinical history are left alone. What NHS staff should take out of a letter first is in our guide to using ChatGPT in the NHS.
AI in GP practices: who owns the decision
Deciding what staff may paste into an AI tool is a decision somebody in the practice owns, usually with the Caldicott Guardian involved. The anonymisation guidance quoted here, from the regulator most practices know as the ICO, suggests that for some organisations a SIRO takes the key decisions.
Naming a Senior Information Risk Owner is a recommendation, not a rule, and whether your practice does so is its own choice, but the question of who decides remains.
In England the practice also completes the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit every year, and the Data Protection Act 2018 adds a personal element at section 170, where releasing personal data the controller never agreed to release is a criminal offence if done “knowingly or recklessly” by “a person”. Whoever pastes the letter is that person, which is why a step on their own desktop matters.
Some consulting rooms already run approved AI. NHS England has published guidance on AI-enabled ambient scribing products, and a practice that uses one is expected to have assessed that product, with a data protection impact assessment, before switching it on. The referral pasted into ChatGPT in the next tab was never part of that check, and that is where the exposure now sits.
Tags do not make the letter anonymous. They can be reversed on the practice computer, so for the practice the letter remains personal data, and a rare condition in a small town can still point to one patient. The GMC’s confidentiality guidance tells doctors the same: taking out the name, age and address is unlikely, on its own, to be enough. Our guide on what stays identifiable in a document explains why, and how to test a letter before it leaves.
What it costs, and the first install
Nonimo starts on one computer, at reception or in a consulting room, and runs on a Mac or a Windows PC.
Installation is per computer, and each one simply begins tagging once the app is in place, with nothing to configure first.
On managed machines, whoever looks after your IT can push out the browser extension by policy instead, which covers text unasked in the AI tools, before anything is sent; hello@nonimo.ai sets it up. Staff carry on using ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot as before, in the browser they already have open.
A good first letter is the next referral somebody wants shortened: select it, press the key, and read the tags before it goes.
Questions from the practice
Is there an NHS rule on AI for GP practices?
No single rule decides it for you: whether staff may use ChatGPT is the practice's own decision. NHS England publishes its own information governance guidance on AI, and the practice should read it alongside the Information Commission's. If the practice decides yes, Nonimo is a step on each computer: the patient details it spots are tagged before the letter is sent, and staff see every tag.
Does Nonimo recognise NHS numbers?
Yes. The NHS number belongs to England, Wales and the Isle of Man. The tag shows on screen before the letter is sent, and the real number is filled back in when the answer returns.
We are a practice in Scotland. What about the CHI number?
Yes, and the H&C number in Northern Ireland as well. Both are covered under their usual heading, like the NHS number in England. The name and the birth date in a Scottish letter are tagged too, and the redacted version shows every tag before anything is sent, so whoever pastes sees exactly what the assistant will read.
Can it stop staff pasting patient letters into ChatGPT?
It makes the paste safe instead. With the browser extension, which IT deploys by policy, patient details are redacted in the AI tool before the letter goes. On each desktop, the app tags patient details the moment someone presses the key, and staff see every tag before the letter is sent. Whether staff may use an AI tool at all is a decision the Information Commission's guidance places with a named owner, the SIRO approach, in the organisations that adopt it.
We already use an approved ambient scribe. Does that cover letters pasted into ChatGPT?
No. Whatever the practice assessed before switching the scribe on covers that product, set up the way the practice set it up. A referral pasted into ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot in another tab is a separate use the practice has to decide on. For that one, Nonimo turns the patient's name, birth date and NHS number into tags on the practice computer before the letter goes.
The GMC says removing the name, age and address is unlikely to be enough. Does a tagged letter count as anonymous?
No, and Nonimo does not claim it does. The tags take out the details that point straight to the patient, and the practice computer can put them back, so the letter is still personal data. What is left, a rare diagnosis, an age, a village, can still narrow it to one person, which is the GMC's point. Read the tagged version first and cut whatever the question does not need.
Will it help with our Data Security and Protection Toolkit?
Yes, as a technical measure you can show. In England the practice completes the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit every year, and that return is the practice's own work. Your text is redacted on your computer and never reaches us. What Nonimo gives you is a technical step on each desktop that staff can see working every time they paste a letter.