NHS must embrace robotics and AI to be fit for future, surgeons warn
Some NHS trusts have embraced state-of-the-art surgical robots, while others are trialling more novel solutions like androids to transport medicines. Surgeons say the health service needs to fully embrace robotics and AI to be fit for the future.
Waiting lists for routine treatment, let alone complex surgery, have reached an all-time high this year as the health service grapples with a backlog made worse by the pandemic.
The situation has been compounded by a series of strikes by consultants, nurses and other staff, including the first major walkout by senior doctors in decades.
Many, many anecdotes suggest that basic low tech efficiency measures should come first.
7 comments:
It is, I think, mostly a matter of ownership. The hospital side of the NHS do not treat patients, they perform work units - and they expect those work units to fit into the processes that suit the hospitals.
Similarly GPs do not treat patients - they dispense their wisdom upon supplicants who manage to gain their attention. Again it's not a matter of my health or your health it's their processes. It's only with the rollout of the NHS app that I've been able to get access to my own health data - previously the GPs regarded it as their data.
Which may be part of the reason why many people use private dentists and almost everybody buys non-NHS glasses and hearing aids. We've taken back ownership.
They are currently working on a Chat GPT version of the twenty-minute phone recording that tells you to ring off and dial 999 if you have chest pains or another emergency, not to attend the surgery if you might have covid, that abusive and violent behaviour towards staff will not be tolerated, the extension to ring for repeat prescriptions,etc., etc.
DJ - I agree, it is mostly a matter of ownership. As well as private dentists, non-NHS glasses and hearing aids, more people seem to use private osteopaths rather than expect the NHS to do anything about joint problems.
Sam - they must be wary of AI systems, because when it comes to basic advice they may already be more capable than the average GP surgery. Available 24/7 too - it must be a threat.
A useful low tech efficiency measure would be to extend your arm, point, and ask "Do you see that gibbet over there?"
P.S. A few months ago my GP surgery told me to stop attending for routine "bloods": it wasn't doing them any more.
Last week it summoned me in for "bloods".
Let Jim show them the way.
https://youtu.be/x-5zEb1oS9A
dearieme - your GP surgery sounds like ours. Mrs H had an invitation for her annual review six months early but there was no review booked. A relative invited for her diabetes review even though she doesn't have diabetes.
Shvatio - if only we'd realised that the programme wasn't a only a comedy, it was telling us how things are and why they will get worse.
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