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Unfinished concrete bridge ending abruptly above a valley while a high-speed train races along a separate track towards the distant horizon. AI transformation in the NHS

Horizon

The future arrived last Thursday.

The NHS wasn’t ready.

The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare published its report and 44 recommendations.

It’s the usual bureaucratic pageantry, too long, gloomy reading… don’t bother reading it…

Understanding the implications of AI transformation in the NHS is crucial for future advancements.

AI transformation in the NHS is a critical topic that requires attention and understanding as we move forward.

The implications of AI transformation in the NHS will shape the healthcare landscape significantly.

Understanding AI Transformation in the NHS

… I have selflessly done that for you!

We must embrace AI transformation in the NHS to enhance patient care and operational efficiency.

The existing medical-device framework was not designed for artificial intelligence and is ‘not fit-for-purpose’.

  • Understanding AI transformation in the NHS is essential for all stakeholders.

    • Here’s an upsum…

  • AI transformation in the NHS can lead to increased accountability and improved outcomes.
    • AI systems may change after approval. 
    • Performance can drift. 
    • They may behave differently in different hospitals, with different patients and different data.
    • Responsibility and liability remain uncertain.
    • Safety incidents are probably underreported. 
    • There’s no universal requirement to tell patients whenever AI has been involved in their care.
    • Widely varying levels of organisational readiness.
    • Clinicians could become what the Commission calls ‘liability sinks’; left carrying responsibility for technology they did not design, cannot inspect and may not fully understand.

    Solutions?

    • An AI-readiness toolbox. 
    • Better guidance. 
    • More training. 
    • Continuous monitoring. 
    • An observatory. 
    • Improved incident reporting. 
    • National best practice.

    Nearly 35,000 words and 44 recommendations to tell us AI has arrived and the NHS ain’t ready.

    In truth it’s sensible scaffolding, but there is no timetable, no costed implementation plan, no regulatory workforce plan and no single person visibly in charge.

    AI transformation in the NHS is not just a trend; it is a necessity in modern healthcare.

    The Commission was not authorised to allocate funding. The cross-government response is still to come.

    AI ain’t gonna wait…

    It is already being bought, downloaded and used while the NHS is still deciding who’s driving, who’s watching, and…

    … who’ll be blamed when it crashes.

    Which brings me to a word used only once in the report but is coming up like a rash in the real NHS.

    Transformation…

    ... these days, the very thought of the word ‘transformation’ sets my teeth on edge, like a fingernail dragged down a chalkboard.

  • Investing in AI transformation in the NHS will benefit patients and healthcare providers alike.

    • The journey of AI transformation in the NHS is just beginning, and we have much to learn.

    Future reports will hopefully highlight the progress of AI transformation in the NHS.

    It appears on badges, job titles, reports, programme boards, conference platforms and PowerPoint presentations.

    The NHS now has armies of transformers.

    The awkward truth is that most of them are not transforming anything. They’e trying to catch up.

    Catch up with a world in which technology is ubiquitous. We bank, shop, work, travel and communicate through joined-up digital systems.

    Information follows us. Transactions happen instantly. We rarely have to explain ourselves twice.

    Except, of course, when we become a patient.

    The NHS has the Spine, shared-care records and pockets of digital excellence. It still doesn’t have a single, comprehensive patient record reliably available wherever care is delivered.

    Patients repeat their histories. (Don’t I know it!) Tests are duplicated. Referrals move between systems. Letters arrive after the next appointment.

    Before yesterday’s digital plumbing is complete, tomorrow’s artificial intelligence has arrived.

    The NHS is caught between an unfinished past and an accelerating future.

    Buying AI, issuing tablets and replacing paper forms with screens is not transformation.  It’s modernisation.  Necessary, overdue and welcome, but …

    …catch-up.

    There’s an important difference.

    • Catch-up makes the NHS work more efficiently as it is.
    • Transformation asks why it is organised that way at all.

    The hospital is a useful test.

    If AI merely processes referrals faster, writes clinic notes and helps patients navigate waiting lists… it has digitised the hospital-centred system.

    If it brings specialist knowledge, diagnostics and decision support into general practice, neighbourhood services and patients’ homes, it begins to change where healthcare happens.

    That might be transformation.

    Not an online waiting room.

    Not a quicker journey along the old pathway…

    … a different pathway.

    However, technology alone can’t move care. Money, authority, staff and accountability have to travel with it.

    They rarely do.

    The government wants the NHS to become one of the world’s most AI-enabled health systems. Oh really…

    Thursday’s report tells us it does not yet have the regulation, governance, infrastructure, workforce or clarity of responsibility to make that ambition safe…

    … thanks.. we all know… and…

    …44 recommendations, three grand principles and no visible route to Monday morning…

    …gives us diddly-squat.

    It is a portentous, over-engineered report, heavy with recommendations but remarkably light on delivery.

    We should stop using transformation as a decoration. It’s not a badge, a board or a brochure and get back to being practical and do five thing…

    • Put one person in charge.
    • Set one national rulebook.
    • Register every AI tool and every version.
    • Tell patients, monitor outcomes and publish failures.
    • Fund the work, train the people and set a deadline.

    Transformation is when technology makes old arrangements unnecessary and management has the courage to scrap them.

    Until then, the transformers are engaged in a race…

    … trying to finish yesterday before tomorrow disappears over the horizon.

    News and Comment from Roy Lilley
    Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
    Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.

    We must remain vigilant about the ethical implications of AI transformation in the NHS.

    Support for AI transformation in the NHS will pave the way for a more effective healthcare system.

    Ultimately, AI transformation in the NHS can lead to a paradigm shift in how care is delivered.

    Adopting AI transformation in the NHS is crucial for keeping pace with global healthcare developments.

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