At HLTH Europe, Amsterdam, experts discussed the challenges and opportunities of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the UK’s health system. As it stands from the discussion, that included key players from the NHS Trust and partners, AI has the potential to revolutionise healthcare delivery in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
Ian Abbs, the CEO of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, highlighted the pressing need for new approaches to address the unsustainability of the current healthcare model. “We are simply going to run out of people to deliver health care if we continue with the current model. In the UK, about 1.5 million people in the working age population are delivering health care, and the number of people in social care is not that far off,” said Abbs. “The demand side reasons you know everything about, but we have a massive supply side problem.”
Maini Bakhai, National Director for Primary Care and Community Transformation for NHS England, emphasised AI’s importance in primary care. “Research has shown that about 44% of administrative tasks alone could be automated,” said Bakhai. “The other key cause of stress and burnout is low-value work, particularly low-value admin work. We’re using our expensive clinicians to do quite low-value admin work and that is contributing to recruitment and retention problems.”
However, Bakhai continues: “We don’t currently take digital clinical safety as seriously as we should” in the existing digital ecosystem. She advocates for a partnership approach with clinicians, patients, regulators and academia “because often we make this mistake of ‘work as imagined’ which is completely different to ‘work as done’.”
The takeaways from the discussion are primarily that AI holds immense potential to transform the NHS by improving efficiency, reducing costs and enhancing patient care. However, realising this potential requires a collaborative approach involving healthcare professionals, regulators and patients. Rigorous digital safety measures, effective training programmes and a focus on both logistics and clinical applications are essential for successful integration. With these efforts, AI can significantly contribute to a more sustainable and effective NHS.
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