{"id":1026869,"date":"2026-06-14T22:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026869\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T22:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:03:29","slug":"redundancy-fears-at-leicester-hospitals-as-ai-introduced-in-major-restructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026869\/","title":{"rendered":"Redundancy fears at Leicester hospitals as AI introduced in major restructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of administrative jobs could be lost at a Leicester hospital trust<\/a> as it introduces artificial intelligence (AI) to write patient letters, consultation papers have shown.<\/p>\n

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust <\/a>(UHL) is restructuring its medical secretary workforce to make way for AI software that listens in on patient appointments and automatically generates clinical correspondence.<\/a><\/p>\n

The trust runs hospitals across Leicestershire<\/a>, including Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital, and Leicester General Hospital, as well as community sites in Loughborough and Coalville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A formal collective consultation outlined a possible reduction of 99 full-time equivalent roles out of 262 affected staff.<\/p>\n

The trust stressed it is making “every effort” to avoid compulsory redundancies through vacancy freezes, restructuring and voluntary schemes, noting the number of roles at risk has already reduced and will likely change further.<\/p>\n

Once fully implemented, the technology will support around 10,000 clinicians<\/a> and cover approximately 2.5 million outpatient appointments each year.<\/p>\n

UHL-UHN Group Chief Digital Information Officer, Will Monaghan, said: \u201cAmbient Voice Technology allows clinicians to spend more time caring for and communicating with patients, and less time on administration. The technology helps create a draft clinical note based on the consultation conversation, which clinicians then review, edit and approve.<\/p>\n

“During our pilot, clinicians saved around an hour each day and patients were able to receive letters on the same day, demonstrating the real benefits this can bring to patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this innovation offers clear benefits for patients and supports clinicians to work more efficiently, it will mean changes for some roles, particularly within administrative teams. We recognise this creates uncertainty and we are engaging with colleagues and trade unions through a consultation process, with feedback helping to shape our plans. Our priority is to ensure colleagues are fully supported and any impact is managed fairly and responsibly.<\/p>\n

For those who do not secure one of the modernised roles, LeicestershireLive <\/a>understands the trust has suggested retraining options, including moving into healthcare support worker positions – roles that are often lower-banded than their current administrative jobs.<\/p>\n

Mr Monaghan added: \u201cFeedback from both patients and colleagues during the pilot was consistently positive, and we believe AVT has the potential to transform how we deliver care. Patients are informed about how the technology works at every appointment, and if anyone prefers not to use AVT, their wishes will always be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeicestershireLive reporters are out across the county every day, watching stories unfold and talking to the people caught up in them. If you spot something we should be covering, get in touch with us by email<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of administrative jobs could be lost at a Leicester hospital trust as it introduces artificial intelligence (AI)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3163],"tags":[323,1942,252538,3374,105,47533,265422,47535,190119,252539,211,11653,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-1026869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-coalville","tag-employment","tag-health","tag-hinckley","tag-leicester-hospitals","tag-loughborough","tag-lutterworth","tag-market-harborough","tag-nhs","tag-premium","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116750726479945119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}