Health Foundation survey reveals one in 10 NHS staff think AI will make care quality worse
Over three quarters of NHS staff support using AI to help with patient care, with more than four-fifths also in favour of its use for administrative tasks, according to a survey commissioned by the Health Foundation.
The survey of 1,292 NHS staff members and 7,200 nationally representative members of the UK public, aged 16 years and older, found the public were less but still broadly receptive to the use of AI in health care, with 54 per cent supporting its use in patient care and 61 percent for administrative purposes.
Given the potential for responsible AI to help ease the significant pressures facing the NHS, the Health Foundation says engaging with the public and NHS staff and understanding their views will be critical to making progress. The survey sought to understand current attitudes and concerns about the use of AI in health care.
The polling also found despite the public being broadly receptive to the use of AI in health care, there is still a significant minority who are currently not supportive. For example, around one in six members of the public and around one in 10 NHS staff surveyed think AI will make care quality worse.
Among the public, young people aged 16-24 are less likely to believe that AI will improve care quality compared to other age groups, and women are less likely to believe that AI will improve care quality compared to men, according to the findings.
The survey revealed the top two concerns with AI in health care were its potential impact on the interpersonal aspects of health care and its potential impact on decision-making accuracy. For example, 30 percent of the public think that one of the main possible disadvantages of AI will be that health care staff will not question the outputs of AI systems and so may miss errors.
Additionally, over half of the public think AI will make them feel more distant from health care staff and nearly two-thirds of the NHS staff surveyed think AI will make them feel more distant from patients.
While the NHS staff surveyed are, on balance, looking forward to using AI as part of their role, this is not equally felt across all occupational groups. With, for example, medical and dental staff being more positive than other clinical staff such as health care assistants and health care support workers.
The publication of this survey follows the Health Foundation’s call for a dedicated strategy for AI in health care which is argued should prioritise engaging the public and health care staff to ensure AI works for them.
Assistant Director (Insight & Analysis) at the Health Foundation, Tim Horton, said: “Interest is growing rapidly in the potential of artificial intelligence to improve health care, and while it is not a panacea, it could play a significant role in helping to ease NHS pressures and support the workforce.
“Capitalising on the potential of AI will require a dedicated strategy to create agreement on priorities and provide greater direction for the NHS and industry. And engaging people in decisions about how AI should be used must be at the heart of this.
“If AI is to be accepted, and the benefits fully realised, it will have to command the confidence of patients, the public and NHS staff. The Health Foundation’s research suggests the public and NHS staff, on balance, support the use of AI for clinical and administrative purposes. But some remain unconvinced, and so it’s crucial to engage people in a conversation about the future of health care – in order to understand and address their concerns.
“It’s clear the public want a human to remain ‘in the loop’ for many uses of AI in health care, and they want AI technologies to be designed and used in ways that protect the human dimension of care. Our research also suggests the impact of AI will be felt differently across roles in health care, and so in helping staff adjust to the rise of AI, policy makers and NHS leaders will need to tailor the support they provide.”
Patti Wynn, Chief Health & Care Strategy Officer for Tunstall Healthcare, recently explained why the UK Government need to ensure health and care technology infrastructure before the potential of AI can be used.
