Steve Barclay turns to AI to save the NHS

The NHS is struggling to cope with an ageing population. Disputes over pay have created a stand off between doctors and the government, while the crumbling social care system has seen bed-blocking reach record levels. So far, the suggested fixes have usually been calls for more money. But what about tech? That’s Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s big idea. 

Speaking to a large audience at The Spectator’s event ‘Can AI and innovation save the NHS?’ this afternoon, Barclay outlined why introducing AI into the health service is right. Chaired by The Spectator’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman, Barclay was joined on the stage by Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP, shadow Scottish cabinet secretary for health and social care, Simon Denegri, executive director of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Katherine Holden, head of AI at TechUK and Richard Torbett, CEO of event sponsors ABPI. 

Could AI help solve the NHS’s workforce crisis? Perhaps, by ‘enabling, not replacing’ the workers, Barclay hastily clarified, ‘because that’s the way, certainly for now, that I see AI has the most active role to play.’