Invest in skills to enable NHS staff to use AI safely

The Health Foundation has called on policymakers and NHS leaders to invest in infrastructure and skills to enable NHS staff to use automation technologies and AI safely and effectively in the future.

According to research, 36 per cent of the general public and 44 per cent of NHS staff surveyed wanted to see more automation and AI in health care in the future – compared to 21 per cent of the public and 14 per cent of NHS staff who said they would like to see less.

When asked to choose which option came closest to their view, 45 per cent of NHS staff felt that the main impact of automation and AI on health care workers will be to improve their quality of work by supporting them and enhancing their capabilities whilst 36 per cent felt it would be to threaten jobs and professional status as these technologies replace humans in an increasing number of areas of health care.

The main perceived risk of automation and AI for the public and NHS staff was health care becoming more 'impersonal' with less human contact.

A new Health Foundation report explores the opportunities for automation and AI in health care and the challenges of deploying them in practice. It draws on Health Foundation research along with online YouGov surveys of over 4,000 UK adults and over 1,000 NHS staff. The report offers in depth analysis into the challenges and potential presented by automation and AI in health care and highlights wider implications for the future – which will be important as policy makers increase support for the uptake of these technologies in the NHS, such as through NHS AI Lab’s recent AI in Health and Care Award.

When asked which they felt would be the biggest challenges for using automation and AI effectively in delivering health care, 45 per cent of NHS staff surveyed said they felt that patients might not accept these technologies or be suspicious of them and 39 per cent felt that staff shortages or inadequate equipment might make it difficult to use these technologies properly. In its report, Switched On, the Health Foundation calls on the government to explicitly address the workforce, skills and infrastructure needs of the NHS in order to exploit new and established technologies successfully over the long term.

Will Warburton, director of Improvement at the Health Foundation, said: “The NHS is facing unprecedented challenges, with the pandemic having placed an already strained system under severe financial and workforce pressures. We need to radically change the way that health care is delivered and the NHS must boost its ability to identify promising technologies to help achieve this. However, it is critical that automation technologies are co-designed with patients and staff and used in ways that support empathy, dignity and compassion and do not undermine them. Embedding new technology successfully in health care settings can also require significant training, testing and staff time so it is crucial that Government funds "the change" not just ‘the tech’.

“There is also a very real risk that automation and AI could widen health inequalities. We know that digital inclusion poses particular challenges given inequalities in access to technology and digital literacy. The upcoming AI strategy must ensure that new technologies introduced to our health care system are designed with the most vulnerable in mind and ideally can help ‘level up’ on health. Automation and AI have great potential in health care but they must be accessible for all.”