{"id":350134,"date":"2025-08-16T22:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T22:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350134\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T22:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T22:04:09","slug":"nhs-to-trial-ai-tool-that-speeds-up-hospital-discharges-artificial-intelligence-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350134\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS to trial AI tool that speeds up hospital discharges | Artificial intelligence (AI)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">An artificial intelligence tool designed to speed up the discharge of patients is being trialled at a hospital trust in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/london\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">London<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The platform completes documents needed to send fit patients home, potentially saving hours of delays and freeing up beds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the tech will enable doctors to spend less time on paperwork and more time focused on care, cutting waiting times in the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The platform, which is being piloted at Chelsea and Westminster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/nhs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NHS<\/a> trust, extracts information from medical records, including diagnoses and test results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This helps medics to draft discharge summaries, which have to be completed before a person is sent home from hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The document is then reviewed by healthcare professionals responsible for the patient and used to send them home or refer them to other services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The manual system can sometimes leave patients waiting for hours to be discharged, as doctors may be too busy to fill in forms, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Streeting said: \u201cThis potentially transformational discharge tool is a prime example of how we\u2019re shifting from analogue to digital as part of our 10-year health plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe\u2019re using cutting-edge technology to build an NHS fit for the future and tackle the hospital backlogs that have left too many people waiting too long.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cDoctors will spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients, getting people home to their families faster and freeing up beds for those who need them most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n<p><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The tool will be hosted on the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), a software system aiming to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In January, Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said AI will be used to \u201cturn around\u201d the economy and public services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Elsewhere, the government has announced that technology shown to halve the time probation officers spend organising notes will be launched later this year. The system helps to transcribe and take notes in meetings that probation officers have with offenders after they leave prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">AI is also being trialled across the NHS. The technology will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2025\/jun\/30\/nhs-will-use-ai-in-warning-system-to-catch-potential-safety-scandals-early\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analyse hospital databases and catch potential safety scandals early<\/a>, providing an early warning system which could detect patterns or trends and trigger urgent inspections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2025\/jul\/31\/nhs-first-ai-run-physio-clinic-in-england-halves-back-pain-waiting-list\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first NHS AI-run physiotherapy clinic<\/a> halved the waiting list for back pain and musculoskeletal services. More than 2,500 patients living in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were able to access Flok Health, a physiotherapy app, over a 12-week period starting in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">And the NHS in England is trialling a \u201csuperhuman\u201d AI tool that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2024\/oct\/23\/nhs-england-trial-ai-tool-aire-heart-disease\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">predicts a patient\u2019s risk of disease and dying early<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Speaking on a visit to Chelsea and Westminster hospital, the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, said: \u201cThis is exactly the kind of change we need, AI being used to give doctors, probation officers and other key workers more time to focus on delivering better outcomes and speeding up vital services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis government inherited a public sector decimated by years of underinvestment and is crying out for reform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThese AI exemplars show the best ways in which we\u2019re using tech to build a smarter, more efficient state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhen we get this right across government, we\u2019re talking about unlocking \u00a345bn in productivity gains, delivering our plan for change and investing in growth, not bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An artificial intelligence tool designed to speed up the discharge of patients is being trialled at a hospital&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-350134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115040712337164047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350134","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=350134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}