Feeling sick? Use ‘ChatGPT of the NHS' first, patients to be told
Patients will be told to consult an 'AI GP' as their first port of call for health problems, under Labour's new NHS ten-year plan.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has announced that the NHS App will be upgraded and use artificial intelligence to provide a 'doctor in your pocket to guide you through your care'.
Called My Companion, the service will be a 'ChatGPT for the NHS' and help patients to manage symptoms while connecting them to real doctors and nurses if necessary.
• Wes Streeting diverts NHS cash from wealthy to working-class areas
The app will help patients choose their own GP, allowing them to 'shop around' between different doctors and hospitals for where they want to be treated.
Streeting said the chatbot tool will act as an 'evolution of the 111 service' and direct people to A&E if needed, as well as assisting with medication and monitoring long-term health conditions.
At an event in Blackpool, the health secretary said: 'It will provide all patients with information about their health condition, if they have one, or their procedure, if they need one.
'It will get patients answers to questions they forget or felt too embarrassed to ask in a face-to-face appointment.'
The tech will be rolled out 'rapidly' within the next three years, using an extra £10 billion in funding for NHS technology awarded by Rachel Reeves in the chancellor's spending review.
Ministers believe AI is vital to freeing up staff time and improving productivity in the NHS, in order to bring down waiting lists of 7.4 million.
Before the launch of the ten-year plan next week, Streeting said artificial intelligence would 'revolutionise our healthcare system' and that a failure to embrace modern technology poses an 'existential risk' to the NHS.
He said technology could be a 'great leveller' by ensuring that it was not just 'sharp-elbowed middle class people' who can select the best care.
• NHS doctors 'excited' about more strikes, say BMA leaders
Under the plan the NHS App will launch a tool called My Choices that will allow patients to compare different hospitals and GPs and choose which one they want to see.
'It will show patients everything from their nearest pharmacy to the best hospital for heart surgery across the country, with patients able to choose based on their preference,' Streeting said.
'If NHS providers know that their waiting times, health outcomes of their patients and patient satisfaction ratings will all be publicly available, they will be inspired to respond to patient choice, raise their game and deliver services that patients value.'
The health secretary vowed to end a 'computer says no' culture within the NHS which he said is contributing to worse health outcomes for working-class people.
'If the wealthy want instant information about their own health, they can pay for an app that allows them to speak to a doctor over the phone, 24/7, but working-class people can't,' he said.
'This is not just grossly unfair, it presents an existential risk to the health service. More than any other age group, this generation of young people are prepared to opt-out of the NHS.
'The NHS feels increasingly slow and outdated to the generation that organises their lives at the touch of a button.
'If you get annoyed at Deliveroo not getting your dinner to you in less than an hour, how will you feel being told to wait a year for a knee operation?
'A failure to modernise risks this generation walking away from the NHS, first for their healthcare and then with their taxes. People won't accept paying higher and higher taxes to fund a health service that no longer meets their needs.'
• Public no longer supports doctors' strikes amid demand for 29% pay rise
Streeting added that the NHS has an 'important role to play' in reducing rates of long-term sickness, which currently leaves 2.8 million people signed off work.
He is diverting £2.2 billion in NHS funding to the poorest areas of the country which have the highest rates of economic inactivity.
Streeting also announced a pilot scheme that will aim to recruit an extra 1,000 NHS staff from areas worst affected by unemployment. He said the 'health service should also act as an engine of local economic growth, giving opportunities in training and work to local people'.
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