NHS App ‘GP in your pocket’ function could face patient resistance, survey suggests
A new AI-powered ‘doctor in your pocket’ feature that’s being developed for the NHS App could face resistance from patients, a survey by the Health Foundation has found.
The poll of 8,000 members of the public, and more than 2,000 NHS staff, found less than half (49%) of respondents would be willing to use the ‘My NHS GP’ feature – first floated in the 10-year plan – for non-urgent care.
On the same question, nearly a third (32%) of survey respondents said they would not use such an app.
However, around three quarters of the public said they would be happy to use the NHS App for functions such as booking hospital appointments (76%), choosing a preferred hospital (73%) and accessing information about procedures (73%).
Survey respondents’ attitude to AI in healthcare
Survey results indicated an income disparity in response to this question, with only 35% of people in households where the main earner is in casual work or unemployed willing to use the ‘Doctor in Your Pocket’ feature, and 36% stating they would not.
AI was viewed more cautiously than technology in general in the survey, with 38% agreeing that AI will ‘improve the quality’ of healthcare, and 19% saying it would make it worse.
This compares to over half of the public (55%) and 60% of NHS staff saying technology ‘improves the quality of care’, compared to 13% of the public and 19% of staff saying it makes care worse.
Respondents largely prioritised the proper regulation of AI in healthcare over the purported benefits of these new technologies, with seven in 10 saying they preferred AI outputs checked by a human even at the expense of speed of results, and 72% saying they wanted strong evidence requirements even if this slows the rollout of new AI tools.
The Government’s 10-year health plan, published last year, announced the addition of an AI-enabled ‘My NHS GP’ tool to the NHS APP to handle non-urgent care enquiries by 2028.
Health Foundation senior improvement analyst Ahmed Binesmael said the findings showed further ‘meaningful engagement’ was needed in the development of AI in healthcare.
He said: ‘The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan set bold ambitions for technology and AI in modernising the NHS. Our findings show the public supports using the NHS App to manage many everyday health care tasks, but is more cautious about AI-generated advice.
‘Meaningful engagement with the public will be essential to get this right – particularly with those that are more sceptical – to ensure new tools meet patient needs and reduce, rather than reinforce, inequalities.’
He added that it was up to policymakers developing the new approach to ‘create an environment where the use of AI is trusted by patients and the public’.
‘While an effective regulatory framework may well be able to balance speed, safety and other principles, our findings suggest the public currently prioritises stronger diligence and safeguards over potential benefits such as speed or availability,’ he said.
Last month, NHS England published a new ‘national registry’ of AI transcription tools for GPs to select from for use in clinical consultation.
NHS England guidance on these tools continues to state that GP practices ‘may still be liable’ for clinical negligence claims arising from the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
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