National Health Online – Legal & Governance

These documents explain how National Health Online operates, how we use your data, and what you can expect from us as a telehealth provider.

Regulation & Safety

National Health Online is designed as a clinically led telehealth service. This page explains how we use AI, how clinical decisions are made, and how we handle safety, governance and data protection.

Clinician-led care

All prescribing and treatment decisions on National Health Online are made by human clinicians. AI tools may be used to summarise information, highlight patterns or support documentation, but they do not replace clinical judgement.

  • Consultations are reviewed by appropriately qualified clinicians practising within their scope of practice.
  • Prescriptions are issued only where clinically appropriate and in line with relevant guidelines.
  • Clinicians can override or ignore AI suggestions at any time.

Use of AI within NHO

AI is used within National Health Online to support, not replace, human decision-making. Typical uses include:

  • Summarising consultation notes for clinicians.
  • Helping patients organise their symptoms before a consultation.
  • Highlighting potential red flags or risk factors for clinician review.
  • Suggesting draft explanations or messages that clinicians can edit before sending to patients.

AI outputs are advisory only. They may be incomplete or incorrect and must never be used as the sole basis for diagnosis, prescribing or emergency decisions.

Clinical governance

National Health Online is structured around a governance framework intended to support safe, auditable care:

  • Role-based access (patient, clinician, pharmacy, admin).
  • Audit logging of key clinical and administrative actions within the platform.
  • Structured consultation flows to capture symptoms, red flags, consent and treatment decisions.
  • Separation of clinical, pharmacy and administrative dashboards.

This internal model is designed to align with good practice in telehealth services but does not replace the duties placed on individual clinicians by their regulator or employer.

Regulatory alignment

The platform is built with reference to the expectations of UK regulators and professional bodies. This includes, for example:

  • General Medical Council standards for good medical practice and prescribing (for doctors using the service).
  • General Pharmaceutical Council expectations for safe remote prescribing and pharmacy dispensing (for partner pharmacies).
  • MHRA guidance on medicines and medical devices where applicable.
  • Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) rules on data protection and information security.

National Health Online itself is a technology platform. Compliance with regulators such as the GMC, GPhC and MHRA depends on how clinicians and pharmacies use the service in practice, and on their own registrations, policies and procedures.

Data protection & security

Patient information is handled in line with UK data protection principles:

  • Personal data is collected only for clear, specific healthcare purposes.
  • Access is restricted based on user role and clinical need-to-know.
  • Activity within the system can be logged for security and governance.
  • Patients can request access to, or deletion of, their data where legally appropriate.

For more detail, please refer to the Privacy Policy.

Pharmacy & prescribing

Where prescriptions are issued through National Health Online, dispensing is carried out by registered pharmacies. It remains the responsibility of:

  • The prescriber to ensure the medicine, dose and indication are appropriate for the patient.
  • The dispensing pharmacy to complete their own safety and identity checks before supplying medication.

AI tools must never be used as a substitute for clinical and pharmacy checks required by law, by regulators or by professional guidance.

Emergencies & safeguarding

National Health Online is not an emergency service. Patients must use NHS 111, their usual GP, or emergency services (999) for urgent or life-threatening problems.

  • Patients are informed during the consultation flow that they should not delay urgent care while waiting for an online response.
  • Where safeguarding or serious risk issues are identified, clinicians should follow their usual safeguarding procedures and local policies.

If at any point you are worried about your own safety or someone else's, you should seek immediate help through your local emergency services.