Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and “robotic process automation” to shorten growing hospital waiting lists and ease pressures created in part by mass migration. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims the reforms will make the socialized healthcare system “fit for the future”.
The Conservative Party hopes bots will be able to schedule doctor appointments and surgeries, while AI will help transcribe doctor’s notes and even diagnose illnesses such as cancer. UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay “wants AI to help reduce workload and raise productivity, supporting staff and freeing up their time to focus on caring for patients.”
Despite Britain’s comparably middling population as a world power, the NHS is not just the biggest employer in Europe, but one of the biggest employers worldwide, rivaling the Chinese security state – which oversees some 1.4 billion people – and American mega-companies like Walmart and McDonald’s. The NHS relies disproportionately on foreign staff – who are even more disproportionately likely to be struck off – in part because successive governments have refused to fund training for more local doctors and nurses.
The NHS workforce serves as the largest, state-dependent, left-wing voting bloc in the nation, with surveys ahead of the 2019 general election finding 82 percent intended to vote for the left-wing Labour Party. Only six percent intended to vote Conservative. The move to have AI fulfill the roles of some staff could be an effort to break down this bloc – although Sunak has also claimed it will be accompanied by a large expansion of staff numbers overall.
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