Riverside Medical Centre: 6 Months with Medelic

Riverside Medical Centre is a 12,000-patient practice in East London serving a diverse, predominantly working-class community. Like many urban practices, they were struggling with overwhelming phone demand and staff burnout. Here's what happened when they deployed Medelic.

The Challenge

Before Medelic, Riverside's morning phone queue was the source of constant stress. Practice Manager Helen describes the situation:

"We were getting 400+ calls a day, mostly crammed into the first two hours. Our receptionists were in tears by 9am. Patients were angry. Our GPs were spending their first hour dealing with complaints instead of seeing patients. Something had to change."

The practice had tried various solutions: online booking, callback systems, extended phone hours. Nothing made a significant dent. The fundamental problem was that demand outstripped capacity, and there was no way to intelligently prioritise who needed to be seen first.

The Implementation

Riverside went live with Medelic in March 2024. The implementation was deliberately gradual - starting with 20% of incoming calls, then scaling up over four weeks as the team built confidence.

Key implementation decisions included:

• Running Medelic in parallel with existing phone lines during the transition
• Having a clinical lead review all AI-generated triage recommendations for the first two weeks
• Weekly feedback sessions with reception and clinical staff
• Clear escalation paths for cases the AI couldn't handle

The Results

After six months, the numbers speak for themselves:

• 87% reduction in phone wait times - Average wait dropped from 23 minutes to under 3 minutes
• 15 hours of clinician time recovered per week - Previously spent on triage calls and complaint handling
• Patient satisfaction up 32 NPS points - From -12 to +20
• Staff turnover halved - From 4 reception staff leaving per year to 2

"The biggest change isn't in the numbers - it's in the atmosphere. Our reception team actually smiles now. Patients thank us instead of shouting at us. I didn't think that was possible."

What Made It Work

Looking back, Helen identifies three factors that made the implementation successful:

Clinical buy-in from day one. The practice's GP partners were involved in the decision to pilot Medelic and stayed engaged throughout. When concerns arose, they were addressed quickly because clinicians felt ownership of the project.

Gradual rollout. The temptation was to go all-in immediately, but the phased approach allowed staff to build confidence and identified edge cases before they became problems at scale.

Honest communication with patients. Riverside was upfront about using AI for initial triage. Most patients didn't mind - they cared about getting help quickly, not about who (or what) answered first.

Looking Forward

Riverside is now exploring additional Medelic capabilities, including medication review support and chronic disease monitoring. The practice that once dreaded each morning now sees technology as an enabler rather than a burden. That's the transformation we hoped for when we built Medelic - and it's happening one practice at a time.