Want to Fix the NHS? Introduce AI Technologies Now!

The NHS is a crumbling mess of poorly run hospitals, services, and antiquated technologies that believes the answer to all its problems is more money, but the reality is that more money would likely worsen the service in the long run. Instead, what the NHS really needs is to demonstrate to the whole world how AI services and smartphones can help reduce pressures on healthcare services. What challenges does the NHS face, why is technology the answer, and where will healthcare go in the future?

What challenges does the NHS face?

Instead of asking the question, “what challenges does the NHS face” it would be easier to state what challenges it doesn’t face. Being a government-run service, the NHS naturally suffers at every conceivable level with numerous amounts of unnecessary middle management, wasted funds, inability to effectively organise, and the total lack of commercial competition (this makes it lazy and fat). At the same time, essential NHS services such as GPs are only accessible during work hours which doesn’t do anything to help those in the workforce, and the lack of penalties for missing GP appointments provides no incentive for patients to turn up.

In many other countries with private healthcare, patients can go directly to specialists without needing to see a GP, which saves money and valuable time for everyone involved. Furthermore, the way that the NHS uses GPs as gatekeepers to specialists can see tens of thousands of appointments simply being used to get a letter to move on to the next stage of diagnosis. My wife had to wait 4 weeks to get a letter from a GP to go to a specialist in February, it’s September now, and we are still on the waiting list in contrast to when we lived in Dubai; booking a specialist took 24 hours!

Another challenge faced by NHS is the current shortage of medical staff. Despite many thousands of students each year wanting to go into medical industries (which the NHS will pay for), many are turned down due to the number of places being capped. This number closely ties with the operation of the BMA, which incidentally is also involved with staff wages (this could be seen as a conflict of interest as capped places increases wages). A free market would allow anyone to train as a doctor (so long as they have the grades), work in the industry, and create a wage system that accurately reflects their value.

Finally, while the NHS may be advertised as a free healthcare service, it is far from free. National Insurance and income taxes are used to fund the NHS, which means any extra spending in the NHS will simply see taxpayers pay more. In fact, basic private healthcare packages in other countries can be cheaper than the tax paid in the UK (keep in mind that taxpayers also have to pay council tax, which is not often seen in other nations and that many US companies provide some level of health insurance).

Why is technology the answer to the NHS?

If the past two years have demonstrated anything, it’s that the NHS is incapable of sorting out its own challenges, and the failing service needs some kind of professional help and restructuring. At the same time, the past two years have also shown massive improvements in advanced technologies such as AI and the use of smartphone data.

One such example is the recent development of a breast cancer detection device that won the UK James Dyson Award. The small device emits sound waves and sends the gathered data to a smartphone, whereby an AI can track changes over time. Should changes be detected, it can inform the user to contact a breast cancer specialist to perform a mammogram. Such a tool can help women identify breast cancer early when survival rates are incredibly high (like prostate cancer, catching breast cancer early is relatively trivial to treat). And to no surprise, doctors claimed that while the technology was “welcomed”, it is no replacement for seeing a doctor (but of course, doctors won’t see people, so what do they expect people to do?).

Another example of the advantages brought by AI is the development of a malignant mole detector developed by MIT researchers last year. A single image of a person’s skin will see the AI immediately identify the location of all moles, log their appearance, track their changes, and use an extensive library of known malignant moles to try and find potential dangers. Such a tool could easily be integrated into smartphones that allow individuals (via a health app) to get pre-diagnostic advice.

Finally, the low price of blood pressure monitors, heart rate detectors, temperature sensors, and weight scales can allow people to track their bodies on a daily basis. Changes in health can easily be identified, passed to local doctors for monitoring, and called in should worrying signs be detected. 

Where will healthcare go in the future?

As the NHS continues to fail the public, individuals will likely start to take matters into their own hands. Those needing to see specialists will begin to turn to the private industry (which ironically is also operated by NHS staff which should be criminal). While others (such as myself) will turn to self-diagnosis aided by commercial medical devices (self-diagnosis is easier than many would think as GPs will often use GPedia to diagnose patients and, failing that, will prescribe antibiotics, painkillers, or bed rest). 

But the development of AI-powered medical systems will undoubtedly lead to real-time medical tracking that will not only eliminate unneeded appointments but help direct patients to specific specialists who can better serve them. At the same time, long-term medical monitoring and tracking will also allow users to share their medical data (whether for monetary gain or as an act of charity), which will help improve other AI systems so that future users can receive better diagnostics.

Overall, giving the NHS more money to waste on management or contract services out to private institutions (which also become lazy due to government money) will not fix its problems, but the introduction of AI technologies, smart devices, and real-time medical tracking could.