We can’t fix modern healthcare with 1950s solutions. AI is the upgrade we need

In today’s NHS, the urgency of embracing artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a matter of innovation - it’s a matter of survival.

The strain on our healthcare system has reached critical levels. 7.42 million people are on the waiting list for treatment, missed appointments cost more than £1.2 billion each year, and clinicians are buckling under unsustainable pressure.

Yet, we keep reaching for the same solutions: hire more doctors, schedule more clinics, stretch already overstretched budgets. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

We are throwing people at a problem that technology could (and should) be helping us solve.

Tackling missed appointments

AI in healthcare is already helping address one of the most important areas: attendance.

Across the NHS, patients are missing appointments not because they don’t care, but because life gets in the way.

You might have a patient juggling zero-hour contracts, mental health struggles, childcare, transport issues, or simply never receiving the reminder they needed.

And for some, that missed appointment can mean the difference between life and death.

The data is stark. People who miss just two GP appointments a year are three times more likely to die prematurely. That risk jumps to eight times more likely if they also live with a mental health condition. These are not just statistics. These are real people falling through the cracks of a system still built on the assumption that everyone can manage their own care, remember their own appointments, and navigate the maze that is modern healthcare without help.

AI can identify the people most at risk of falling through those cracks. It can learn who is likely to miss an appointment and nudge them in the right way at the right time. Not with a generic text message, but with personalised interventions that adapt to each patient’s needs and behaviour. This isn’t science fiction. It’s already happening.

In Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, an AI platform reduced no-shows by 30% in just six months. That meant 377 fewer missed appointments and 1,910 more patients getting the care they needed.

These aren't marginal gains. These are measurable, life-changing outcomes.

The system didn’t need more doctors or more clinics. It needed smarter scheduling, intelligent reminders, and data-driven support. The project is on track to save the trust £27.5 million a year. Scaled nationally, the impact could be transformative.

Empowering physicians, equitising healthcare

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about replacing doctors. It’s about empowering them.

Clinicians went into medicine to care for people, not to spend hours chasing up no-shows or worrying about scheduling inefficiencies.

AI can do what machines do best: analyse patterns, predict outcomes, automate the routine, so humans can do what they do best: provide compassionate, expert care.

This technology also carries a quiet, radical power: the power to reduce health inequality.

Missed appointments disproportionately affect those in lower socio-economic groups. These patients often struggle the most to make it to clinics and they’re often the ones who suffer most when they don’t.

By targeting support to those most at risk, AI can help level the playing field. It can ensure that healthcare isn’t just available, but accessible. That it doesn’t just treat illness, but addresses the social determinants that so often underpin it.

Acceleration through implementation

This is the NHS at its best: smart, fair, efficient. But we need to accelerate the shift. Too much of our current model is still based on assumptions and inertia.

We assume that what worked in the 1950s still works now. We assume that more budget is the only answer. Yet, AI can help in transformative ways if adopted at scale.

If AI were scaled across the NHS to optimise clinic attendance alone, we could virtually eliminate the elective care backlog in just a year.

Seven million people could be seen faster, treated earlier, and given a better chance at recovery. That is a future within our reach - if we are bold enough to reach for it.

In the end, healthcare is about people.

And technology, when used right, is a way to care for people better. It’s not about algorithms replacing empathy. It’s about making sure no one’s letter gets lost. No one’s condition should get worse because a system doesn’t know who needs help.

We owe it to every patient and clinician to build a system that is as modern as the challenges it faces.

It’s time to stop reaching to the past for solutions and start building the healthcare future our patients deserve.

About the authors

Dr Benyamin Deldar, MD, is co-founder & co-chief executive officer, and business development leader at Deep Medical. His background is in medical imaging and neurointervention. Dr Deldar has worked at a number of high-profile institutions, including Guys and St Thomas Hospital, Epsom and St Heliers NHS Trust. He’s undertaken a research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, where he co-authored the Hopkins Manual of Neurointervention. He also holds a distinction in Radiology from Harvard Medical School.

David Hanbury, Meng, MSc, is co-founder & co-chief executive officer and head of machine learning at Deep Medical. He’s made a huge contribution to the field of AI, winning the prestigious BP prize for best performance in engineering and the predictive auto-ML system he developed is currently used by the United Nations' Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Hanbury’s dedication to advancing machine learning prediction spans over a decade. Before Deep Medical, Hanbury was the CEO and founder of OptimalAI, helping businesses integrate AI into their infrastructure, and he’s been involved in several healthcare start-ups including ChAI Predict and Hummingbird Technologies. Hanbury worked as a fund manager for JP Morgan at the start of his career. He’s also an honorary staff member of the Computer Science department at UCL.