Doctors dismayed by report of NHS AI proposal
New Health Secretary James Murray would be responsible for implementing the plan, if adopted.
A report that the NHS is considering scaling back its recruitment drive and deploying greater use of AI to plug the gap has been called a "massive, dangerous gamble" by the British Medical Association.
A leaked workforce plan – apparently drawn up by former Health Secretary Wes Streeting before he resigned last week – is being finalised by the NHS in England and would peg back staffing targets set by the previous Conservative government, according to a Financial Times report, which said it has seen a draft of the proposal.
According to the document, which the FT reckons could be published within the next few weeks if new Health Secretary James Murray chooses to retain the plan, the existing recruitment targets are "a path to financial ruin."
The idea behind the new proposal is that the NHS's strategy of treating more patients in community settings, aided by digital technologies, will mean that the staffing levels laid out in its 2023 workforce plan will not be required, despite years of chronic shortages.
AI could be used to "completely substitute" for some roles, it contends, and could be used, for example, to "frame a consultation, highlight risk level, [and] identify key patient information."
BMA workforce lead, Dr Amit Kochhar, said: "We will wait to see the full plan, but it is crushingly disappointing to see government apparently planning to simply accept that the low number of doctors we have in this country is just a fact of life."
He added: "Anyone who has recently visited an A&E department or a GP surgery will have experienced first hand how understaffed the health system is," pointing out that the UK already has much lower staffing than most of its European neighbours, with 3.4 doctors per 1,000 people compared to 4.6 in Germany, for example.
"No one disputes that AI can be helpful to doctors. What they do dispute is the idea that doctors can be replaced by it," continued Kochhar.
"A chat bot cannot look after a patient. And even if it could, our experience of the NHS's ability to adopt new technology gives us very little hope that staking all our chips on AI would work."
According to the FT, the proposals would see annual NHS staffing increases of 1.1% to 2%, down from the 2.6% to 2.9% included in the 2023 plan, and argue that a 50% increase in doctor numbers in the last decade "has not led to better access, experience or outcomes for citizens."
At the same time, a survey revealed earlier this week by the Royal College of Nursing has warned of "collapsing growth" in the registered nurse workforce that is leaving nursing staff exhausted and struggling to keep people safe. All told, 22% of the 13,000 nurses who completed the survey said numbers are now so low there is a high risk of patient harm on shift.
