{"id":646994,"date":"2025-12-21T21:06:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/646994\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T21:06:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:06:33","slug":"lincolnshire-hospital-bosses-vow-theyre-not-planning-to-replace-humans-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/646994\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincolnshire hospital bosses vow they\u2019re not planning to replace humans with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hospital chiefs insist they are not looking to replace human interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) as part of a transformation programme.<\/p>\n

Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG) is carrying out a consultation process with staff<\/a> in a bid to modernise the way it manages appointments and letters to patients.<\/p>\n

\"HospitalHospital bosses want to change the way they manage patient appointments. Photo: istock\/Nickbeer<\/p>\n

The consultation over the Patient Services Hub has drawn opposition from the Unite union \u2014 which warns that the move puts 180 jobs at risk \u2014 and a 4,000-plus name petition, which alleges that the move is an \u2018alarming\u2019 plan that could replace people with AI.<\/p>\n

Hospital bosses have insisted that it is too early to say what will happen \u2014 with the consultation due to end on January 6<\/a> \u2014 but have told LincsOnline that it is not the intention for AI systems to cut human interaction from the admin process.<\/p>\n

They do say, however, that automation will be used to take care of \u2018routine tasks\u2019 under a new-look system.<\/p>\n

\"UniteUnite General Secretary Sharon Graham (middle) is concerned about cuts to Lincolnshire hospital staff.<\/p>\n

Caroline Landon, group chief operating officer at Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group, said: \u201cThe intention of our Patient Services Hub transformation programme is to significantly improve how we coordinate patient care in our hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is in response to feedback from our patients about challenges they face in getting hold of people on the telephone to query, rearrange or cancel appointments and issues with letters they receive about their care.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff have also told us they are frustrated by the outdated technology currently used to manage patient appointments, as we rely on 15 different systems and 40 mailboxes to handle patient bookings.\u201d<\/p>\n

She reiterated that bosses are working together with staff as part of the consultation to design a future model and added: \u201cWe value our administrative and clerical staff, and fully acknowledge the important role that they play in patient care. This programme is about enabling and supporting these colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed Patient Service Hub would bring together and modernise outpatient and inpatient administrative services, including using digital tools to ensure that our communication with patients is improved and making our processes simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not intended to remove human interaction, but to enhance it by reducing administrative inefficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile automation would support routine tasks, patients will always continue to have direct access to staff for complex, urgent, or sensitive matters or if they\u2019re not confident using digital tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, this remains a proposal so it would be inappropriate to comment further on the details until we have heard from staff and considered their feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Union leaders say they have had a surge of new members since the consultation began \u2014 and called for talked with hospital bosses to \u2018reset\u2019 the proposals.<\/p>\n

Patient watchdog Healthwatch has asked for clarification about the proposals from the trust and says it will \u2018expect clear information about how patient access, safety, quality of care and staffing levels will be maintained or improved\u2019.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Email news@lincsonline.co.uk with your views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hospital chiefs insist they are not looking to replace human interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[84404,105,4348,35985,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-646994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-all-lincolnshire-news","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-lincs-homepage","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115759598327985223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994","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=646994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}