Blog · Private GP

How long does it take to get an AI receptionist live, and what does it cost?

No coding, no new practice system, nothing ripped out. The real work is agreeing one true version of your fees and plans.

The direct answer

Most practices are live in two to six weeks. Plans start from £500 a month, and the first month is free.

There is no coding, no new practice management system, and nothing to rip out. It sits alongside the software you already run. The work on your side is mostly one thing: giving it the documents it answers from, and then approving what it is allowed to say.

The exact price depends on your call and email volumes and how much you want it to take on, so we confirm the figure after a first conversation rather than pretending a private clinic and a five-site group cost the same.

What actually happens, week by week

Week one: a conversation, and your documents. We talk about your patients, your channels, and the software it needs to sit alongside. Then we load the one place it answers from: your fee schedule, your membership plans, which insurers you take, your clinicians and their sessions, your policies. This is the part that decides whether it is any good, so it is worth doing properly.

Weeks two to three: we tailor it, and you approve it. It gets shaped to how your practice speaks. Formal or warm. Whether it says "Doctor". What it may answer, what it must never touch, and exactly when it hands over to a person. Nothing goes live until you have read it and signed it off.

Weeks three to six: switch it on, narrow at first. Most practices do not start everywhere at once. They start with one thing that hurts: the evenings, or the overflow calls when the desk is busy. It handles real conversations on that one channel, with you watching.

After that: refine. We go through the call logs with you and tune it. If it fumbled a question, the answer goes in, and it does not fumble it again.

What we need from you

Less than practices expect, but it is not nothing:

• Your fee schedule, the current one
• Your membership plans, and what each one actually includes
• The insurers you accept
• Your clinicians and their sessions
• Your policies: cancellations, deposits, late arrivals, registration
• A decision on where it hands over to a person, and to whom

If your fee list is out of date, this is the moment it will show. That is a feature, in a way. Practices routinely find that the price on the website, the price on the printed sheet and the price the desk quotes are not the same number.

What it costs, honestly

Plans start from £500 a month. The first month is free.

We do not publish a fixed per-seat price because the honest answer is that it depends on your volumes and how much of the admin you want it to carry. A single-site clinic taking a few hundred calls a month and a five-site group taking several thousand are not the same job.

What we will say plainly: the comparison most practice managers run is against another receptionist, and that is the right comparison to run. A receptionist is a salary plus employer's National Insurance plus pension, plus recruitment, training, holiday and sickness cover. It is a bigger number, and it still does not cover Sunday evening.

That is not an argument for replacing your receptionist. It is an argument for not asking them to be three people.

Is this a big IT project?

No, and if someone tells you it is, be careful.

• No new practice management system. It sits alongside Semble, Heydoc, Cliniko, Medesk and Pabau.
• No coding.
• No rip-and-replace.

The heavy lifting is on our side. The thinking is on yours: what it may say, and where it stops.

Frequently asked

Can we start with just the phone?

Yes, and most do. Voice is usually where the pain is loudest. Email, chat and social can follow once you trust it.

Can we start with just out of hours?

Yes. It is a common first scope, because the risk is low and the gap is obvious.

What if we do not like what it says?

You change it. You approved the wording in the first place, and you can keep changing it. Every conversation is logged and reviewable.

Do we have to commit for a year?

The first month is free, which exists precisely so you can find out before you commit.

Will it work if our documents are a mess?

It will work better once they are not. Part of the setup is getting one true version of your fees and plans, which is worth doing anyway.

The quickest way to find out is not to read about it. Put your practice's website address in, and hear it answer, built on your own fees and plans.

CTA: Build your practice's agent, live → https://portal.healthcentre.ai/setup?product=3ad92dec-b0eb-490f-95bd-03e635310947