NHS England and the Government will set up an expert group to ensure that the NHS can take advantage of the opportunities artificial intelligence can offer, as set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
The plan, announced last week, includes chapters focused on how to make the most of digital and technological innovations such as voice recognition, robotic process automation, remote monitoring and AI.
In a section entitled Upskilling the Workforce, the plan articulates the need to “upskill the workforce to maximize opportunities from technological and digital It mentions the establishment of the NHS Digital Academy as a home for development.
Documents confirm that a digital skills assessment tool that addresses digital literacy needs across the workforce will be rolled out by the end of 2023/24. The Digital Learning Solutions Platform provides medical and social services organizations with access to online digital skills training content produced both centrally and locally.
The workforce plan, based on Topol’s review, states that “NHS England and the government will convene a group of experts to ensure the NHS takes advantage of the opportunities AI can offer.”
This group builds on previous work by Health Education England (HEE) to explore what skills and training NHS staff need to make the most of AI, and how AI can help groups of NHS staff. We plan to consider what kind of impact is expected.
HN Chief Executive Mark Englund welcomes the focus on AI in the NHS’s long-term workforce plans. He said, “It is positive that prospects for the future workforce, plans for career retention and transformation, and proposals for how staff can leverage and operate new technologies are being partially funded.
“Advanced technology and AI are right at the forefront of this workforce plan and we welcome the intention to create an expert group to identify advanced technologies for the NHS,” he added.
“Entirely new models of care can increase productivity, and our workforce models need to accommodate this innovation.”
The paper also notes that AI has great potential in diagnostic support and can contribute to management processes through applications such as voice recognition, predictive health analysis, patient triage, and preventative medicine.
In a more general sense, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has three main objectives.
- training We have significantly increased our staff and have an adequate number of doctors, nurses, midwives, general practitioners, dentists, allied health professionals, pharmacy staff and other staff.
- Retention Strengthen our dedicated NHS workforce by enabling flexibility and career advancement, and improving culture, leadership and benefits, while continuing to focus on equality and inclusion.
- reform A way of working that equips medical staff with the right interdisciplinary skills and enables them to take advantage of new digital and technological innovations to focus on patient care.
The plan also highlights the potential for virtual wards and a proposal to set up a federated data platform (FDP) to make data easily accessible to staff.
