Copilot expands in NHS

Manchester University NHS FT’s three‑year enterprise agreement with Microsoft adds 6,500 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences each year, intended to give access to all corporate staff and roughly 1,600 frontline colleagues. (mft.nhs.uk) The trust has already issued about 1,500 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences and deployed Dragon Copilot ambient voice technology to “hundreds” of clinicians after an 18‑month trial. (mft.nhs.uk) A clinical pilot involving roughly 150 doctors found users like Dr Charles Pearman save an average of three to five minutes per patient, and chief executive Mark Cubbon said early indications suggest the tech could allow the trust to see and treat up to 250,000 additional patients a year. (news.microsoft.com) The trust is establishing an internal “Agent Factory” to build AI agents for administration, finance and information‑governance tasks, and its early HR pilots reported some administrative tasks taking up to half the time they previously required. (digitalhealth.net) Industry coverage frames the rollout as an 8,000‑user Copilot deployment across MFT’s ten hospitals (covering corporate staff and around 1,600 frontline workers) within the three‑year arrangement. (uctoday.com) Commentary from early adopters and tech writers — including a recent MakeUseOf piece — says practical Copilot features have shifted sceptical users into regular use, while the trust says clinicians report improved focus in consultations versus previously being screen‑focused. (makeuseof.com)