AI receptionist for UK clinics

Short answer: an AI receptionist for a clinic should answer while you are treating, book new patients into the right appointment and pass anything clinical to a person. Unavoidable CRM does this from £29 a month, with call minutes at the provider’s cost (about 10p to 15p a minute) and bookings, reminders, notes and consent forms in the same system.

If you only want calls answered and already run a clinic system you like, a standalone service such as Fasthosts Spark (from £39 a month plus VAT) or your clinic software’s own add-on may suit you better. If you want a real person on every call, a human answering service such as Moneypenny is still the safer choice. This guide compares all three routes for UK physio, chiropractic, aesthetics and wellness clinics.

What a clinic needs from an AI receptionist

Clinic calls are not like trade calls. Most of them fall into a few types, and a good receptionist, human or AI, should handle each one the same way every time:

New patient bookings. Explain the treatments, prices and first appointment, then book an initial assessment or consultation into a free slot.
Changes and cancellations. Move or cancel an appointment without leaving gaps you cannot fill.
Practical questions. Opening hours, parking, what to wear, how long a session lasts, whether you take insurance.
Clinical questions. Anything about symptoms, side effects or aftercare problems goes to a qualified person. The receptionist takes the details and makes sure someone calls back.
Urgent calls. If a caller describes something urgent, the receptionist should tell them to call NHS 111 or 999 rather than wait for a callback.

The last two points matter most. Whatever you choose, write the rules down before you switch it on: what it may answer, what it must pass on, and who gets the message.

Side by side (prices checked November 2026)

	Unavoidable CRM	Fasthosts Spark AI Receptionist	Moneypenny	Pabau Engage Plus	Verbalise for Cliniko
What it is	CRM for clinics with a built-in AI receptionist	Standalone AI receptionist	Human receptionists, supported by AI	AI agents add-on for Pabau clinic software	AI receptionist that manages a Cliniko diary
Published price	Solo £29, Team £149, Agency £399 a month	Lite £39 (30 calls), Plus £69 (100 calls), Unlimited £99 a month, plus VAT	Quote only, based on call volume and hours	No add-on price published	No price on Cliniko’s page
Call costs	Minutes billed by your own voice provider at cost, typically 10p to 15p a minute, no markup	49p (Lite) or 39p (Plus) per call over the allowance	Included in the quoted plan	AI call minutes paid with Pabau credits	Not stated
Books into your diary	Yes, its own booking pages with Google Calendar and Outlook sync	Plus and Unlimited, via Google Calendar or Outlook	Yes, with access to your calendar	Booking links and confirmations	Yes, books, moves and cancels in Cliniko
Notes, consent and payments in the same place	Yes: SOAP notes, consent forms, deposits and payment plans	No, calls only	No, calls only	Yes, inside Pabau	Yes, inside Cliniko
Trial	14 days, no card	1 month free	Free trial, length not stated	Add-on promotion of 3 months free	Not stated

Competitor details are from each company’s own pages, read on 2 November 2026. Moneypenny’s standard cover runs 8.30am to 6pm, with out-of-hours and 24/7 cover on request, and its smaller plans have a three-month minimum. Pabau’s own page describes its AI receptionist as texting back missed calls, while its pricing page says the add-on answers calls and messages, so ask Pabau exactly what is included before you buy.

Where the others are strong

Moneypenny gives you real people. For anxious callers, complaints or anything that needs judgement, a trained person is still better than any AI, and it is the obvious choice if you never want a patient to speak to a machine.
Fasthosts Spark is simple to understand: a flat monthly price in pounds, a month free, and calendar booking on the Plus plan. If you are happy with your current clinic software and only need the phone covered, it keeps things separate and tidy.
Pabau and Cliniko with Verbalise make sense if your clinic already runs on them. A receptionist that works inside your existing diary can follow rules that a general tool cannot, such as which practitioner, which room and how long each treatment takes. Verbalise also handles membership and insurance rules in Cliniko.

Where Unavoidable CRM is different

One system, not two. The AI receptionist answers, explains your treatments and books an initial assessment into the same system that holds the patient record, consent forms, treatment notes and payments. There is no copying details from a call summary into another app.
Per business, not per call. Plans are priced per business with every feature included. Call minutes go on your own voice provider account at the provider’s price, so a quiet month costs less and you see the real bill.
Built for clinic admin. Text and email reminders, rebooking and aftercare follow-ups, deposits and payment plans through your own Stripe account, and a face and body diagram for marking treatment sites.
UK data. Records are held in UK data centres with encrypted nightly backups, and you can sign the data protection agreement inside the CRM.

What it is not: a human service, or a replacement for a practice system that already works well for a large multi-site clinic. It answers in British English, gives every call a transcript and summary, and hands over or takes a message when a caller needs a person.

What a small clinic might pay

As an example, a one-practitioner clinic on the Solo plan that uses 200 AI receptionist minutes a month would pay £29 plus roughly £20 to £30 in call minutes at 10p to 15p a minute, so about £49 to £59 a month, with booking, reminders and records included. Reminder texts cost about 4p to 5p each on your own account. Your own figure depends on how long your calls are; our guide to what an AI receptionist costs in the UK shows how to work it out.

Which should you choose?

Choose a human answering service if your callers are often worried or vulnerable, or you want a person on every call and are happy to pay for it.
Choose your clinic software’s own AI option if you are settled on Pabau or Cliniko and want the receptionist working inside that diary.
Choose a standalone AI receptionist if you only need calls answered and booked, and want to keep your current systems.
Choose Unavoidable CRM if you are a small clinic that wants calls, bookings, reminders, notes, consent and payments in one place for one monthly price. Start the 14-day free trial, load your treatments and opening hours, and test it on a week of real calls.

Frequently asked questions

Can an AI receptionist give medical advice to my patients?

It should not. Set it to answer practical questions only and to pass anything about symptoms, side effects or aftercare problems to a qualified member of your team. Callers with something urgent should be told to call NHS 111 or 999.

Will an AI receptionist book into the right appointment type?

Only if it knows your treatment list. In Unavoidable CRM each treatment has its own booking page with its price and duration, so the receptionist books from the same list your patients see online. Tools that sit inside Pabau or Cliniko use those systems’ own rules.

How much does an AI receptionist cost a small UK clinic?

From the pages we checked in November 2026, standalone services start at £39 a month plus VAT, and Unavoidable CRM starts at £29 a month plus call minutes at cost. Human answering services are usually priced by quote.

Is this guide suitable for NHS GP practices?

No. GP practices work under NHS rules and buying routes of their own. This guide is for private clinics such as physio, chiropractic, aesthetics and wellness.

AI receptionist for clinics in the UK: what to compare