NELFT cuts missed appointments by 25% with EBO AI Virtual Assistant Harper

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NELFT cuts missed appointments by 25% with EBO AI Virtual Assistant Harper

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NELFT (North East London NHS Foundation Trust) cut its missed-appointment rate by 25% and saved £169,135 per year in DNA (Did Not Attend) costs after rolling out EBO's AI Virtual Assistant named Harper across two early adopter services. The deployment has been shortlisted in the 'Unlocking Productivity and Efficiency with Digital' category at the HSJ Digital Awards 2026. NELFT serves 4.3 million people across the London boroughs, Essex, Kent and Medway. Prior to the rollout, the Trust relied on call-based booking and rescheduling, which limited patient access to office hours and pushed administrative workload onto frontline staff. The Trust wanted a 24/7 self-service channel to improve patient experience, reduce admin burden, and lower DNA rates. EBO positions Harper as a virtual assistant that 'enables patients to book, reschedule, cancel, and view appointments online, improving access to care, easing pressure on administrative teams, and already delivering outstanding results.' The assistant is fully bi-directionally integrated with Rio, the Trust's electronic patient record (EPR), so any change made through Harper is reflected in the clinical system in real time. EBO co-designed the workflows with NELFT frontline teams so the assistant fit existing clinical processes rather than imposing a generic template. Operationally, the rollout covered two early adopter services in the first phase. Out-of-hours patient engagement — conversations handled outside the Trust's normal contact-centre window — reached 43%, and 91% of patients rated their experience as positive. Together, these early results translated into the £169,135 annual DNA savings and 25% reduction in missed appointments reported across the two services. With the HSJ Digital Awards 2026 shortlist and quantified early results in hand, NELFT is positioned to extend Harper-style self-service booking to additional services, turning the two-service pilot into a Trust-wide digital front door for appointment management.