NHS: Artificial Intelligence
(asked on 4th February 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure public engagement with AI implementation in the NHS.
As part of Government’s five long-term missions, the Department has launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. The plan will set out an agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed, to move healthcare from hospital to the community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital.
In addition to launching the online platform, change.NHS.UK, there have been many events across England, which included people and staff from different backgrounds and experiences. In-depth deliberations with the public will consider their priorities and expectations on the three shifts, including their views on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Further information on the change.NHS.UK website is available at the following link:
The Department also engages with Understanding Patient Data (UPD) to ensure that we consider the patient in our policy and strategic thinking. UPD provides objective information about how patient data is used and brings the views of patients and the public to us, to ensure data is being managed and used in ways that are worthy of public trust. Further information on UPD is available at the following link:
https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/
As part of its work on AI, the NHS AI Lab and Sciencewise, within UK Research and Innovation, held a public dialogue on how the public believes decisions should be made about access to their personal health data for AI purposes. The AI Lab conducted a discovery exercise to design approaches based on insights from the public, which is now informing broader data stewardship initiatives, for example, as part of the Secure Data Environments.
In addition, NHS England has recruited patient representatives, Patient and Public Voice Partners, for the AI Advisory Committee on Responsible AI Adoption, to ensure that the committee considers the views of service users, patients, and the public in its advice to the system on the development and delivery of AI.