What is EMMA? Understanding Your AI Call Handler

Purpose of This Article

This article gives practice managers, receptionists, and clinical staff a clear understanding of what EMMA is, how she handles calls, and what she does and does not do. It is the foundation for understanding everything else in this knowledge base.

Main Content

What Is EMMA?

EMMA is an AI-powered call handler that answers every inbound patient call at your surgery. She conducts a structured conversation with the patient, captures their request, and submits it directly into your online consultation inbox — Accurx, eConsult, Anima, or AskMyGP — ready for your team to review and act on.

EMMA is the telephone equivalent of an online consultation tool. The input channel is different; the output is the same: a structured patient request, ready for your team.

EMMA is the only AI reception platform in NHS primary care with DTAC certification. She is registered as an MHRA Class I Medical Device and is compliant with DCB0129 and DCB0160.

How EMMA Handles a Call

When a patient calls your surgery number, here is what happens:

EMMA answers within seconds.
EMMA captures the patient's details at the start of the call and performs a live PDS (Personal Demographics Service) lookup to verify their identity.
EMMA conducts a structured conversation to understand the patient's request.
EMMA captures the relevant details and submits the request into your online consultation inbox.
Your team reviews and actions the request as normal.

If the patient's request requires human intervention — an emergency, a safeguarding concern, a call from a healthcare professional, or any other scenario that bypasses EMMA — the call is transferred immediately to your reception team. See the section below on calls that always go to reception.

EMMA can handle multiple requests in a single call, so patients do not need to call back for separate issues.

What EMMA Can Handle

EMMA is designed to capture a wide range of patient requests, including:

Medical concerns and symptoms requiring a GP review
Administrative requests such as fit notes, referral chasing, and test result queries
Requests for information about services and referral pathways
Signposting to the NHS App, Pharmacy First, and other appropriate services
Routine care requests

EMMA supports over 20 languages including English, Polish, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Punjabi, Somali, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Romanian, French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovak, and Portuguese.

What EMMA Does Not Do

EMMA does not:

Book GP appointments directly
Make clinical decisions
Replace your clinical or administrative team
Access or update patient records

EMMA captures and submits requests. All clinical triage, decision-making, and follow-up remains with your practice team.

Calls That Always Go Directly to Reception

Certain call types bypass EMMA entirely and transfer immediately to your reception team, regardless of any other settings. These include:

Safety and vulnerability

Emergency symptoms such as chest pain, stroke signs, severe breathing difficulty, or severe bleeding
Suicidal ideation or self-harm
Safeguarding concerns
VIP or vulnerable patients on your configured list
Unwell baby under 12 months
Death registration calls
Patients with digital exclusion

Healthcare professionals

Hospitals, pharmacies, district nurses, community teams, health visitors, midwives, paramedics, social workers, mental health teams, the coroner's office, and other healthcare or professional callers

Returning and reconnecting callers

Patients responding to a missed call from the surgery
Patients responding to an SMS from the surgery
Patients whose call was disconnected mid-conversation

Requests for specific people

Requests for a named doctor or staff member

How EMMA Handles Patients Who Ask for Reception

When a patient asks to speak to a receptionist, EMMA can gently encourage them to share their request first. Many requests can be handled without a transfer. If the patient continues to ask for reception, EMMA will transfer the call.

How persistent EMMA is before transferring is configurable. There are four settings, called Transfer Sensitivity Levels:

Level 0 — EMMA transfers immediately when a patient asks for reception
Level 1 — EMMA makes a gentle attempt to capture the request (approximately 3 exchanges) before transferring. Recommended for new practices.
Level 2 — EMMA makes a moderate attempt (approximately 5 exchanges) before transferring
Level 3 — EMMA makes a sustained attempt (approximately 7 exchanges) before transferring

Safety overrides always apply regardless of the level set. Any call that should go straight to reception will always do so.

Your Transfer Sensitivity Level is configured during onboarding. It can be adjusted at any time by contacting your account manager. See: Understanding EMMA's Transfer Sensitivity Settings (article 2.5).

EMMA's Clinical Safety Features

Clinical safety is built into every part of how EMMA operates. Key features include:

Red Flag EMMA's emergency pathway intelligence. It identifies emergency symptoms across every language EMMA supports and routes those calls appropriately, with clinical oversight from QuantumLoop AI's Chief Safety Officer.

Sentinel EMMA's always-on clinical safety monitoring layer. It watches every call in the background and flags any interaction that deviates from the intended flow.

Lifeline A fallback pathway that ensures no call is ever truly lost. If a call drops or audio quality is poor, EMMA tells the patient they will receive a link to continue in writing via SOFIA. The practice receives the same structured outcome regardless of how the call ended.

EMMA Gets Better Over Time

EMMA includes an adaptive learning system called Learn. Every call helps EMMA improve her understanding of your specific practice, your patient population, and your workflows. Configuration can also be updated at any time to reflect changes at your surgery.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This article does not require step-by-step instructions. EMMA handles calls automatically once she is live. If you need to configure or adjust EMMA's settings, see the relevant articles listed in the Related Articles section below.

Troubleshooting

EMMA is not answering calls. Check that EMMA is enabled on your dashboard. See: EMMA Is Not Answering Calls (article 3.1).

A patient request has not appeared in our inbox. Check that your online consultation system is active and accepting submissions. See: A Patient Request Has Not Arrived in the Inbox (article 3.3).

EMMA transferred a call to reception when she should not have. Review the transfer sensitivity settings and the list of calls that always bypass EMMA. If the transfer was unexpected, note the time of the call and contact your account manager. See: EMMA Transferred a Call to Reception When It Should Not Have (article 3.4).

A patient said EMMA did not understand them. EMMA supports over 20 languages and handles a wide range of accents and speaking styles. If a patient reports difficulty, review the call recording in the dashboard and share it with your account manager. See: EMMA Is Not Recognising What a Patient Is Saying (article 3.6).

FAQs

Does EMMA replace our reception team? No. EMMA handles the initial capture of patient requests. Your reception and clinical team continue to review, triage, and act on those requests. EMMA works alongside your team, not instead of them.

What happens to patients who refuse to use EMMA? Patients who persistently ask to speak to a receptionist will be transferred. EMMA does not block access to reception. Around 10 to 15 percent of patients typically request a transfer.

Can patients call outside of opening hours? EMMA operates within your configured hours. Outside of those hours she can be set to inform callers that the surgery is closed, or turned off entirely so calls are not answered.

What if a patient is not registered at our surgery? EMMA performs a live PDS lookup on every call. If a patient is not registered, EMMA can capture their information as an administrative request or signpost them to a registration link.

Is EMMA safe for all patients, including vulnerable ones? Yes. Clinical safety is the first condition of every EMMA release. Vulnerable patients can be added to your VIP list so their calls always go directly to reception. Emergency and safeguarding calls always bypass EMMA immediately.

How does EMMA handle calls in other languages? EMMA detects the caller's language automatically and responds accordingly. She supports over 20 languages. See: How EMMA Handles Calls in Other Languages (article 2.7).