Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Shadow Health and Care Secretary Damian Hinds said artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies could help the NHS improve care and make better use of staff time. He argued that the UK is well placed to lead, but warned that successful adoption depends on involving frontline workers, protecting patient safety and data, and learning from previous public sector technology failures.
The NHS must find ways to meet growing demand for healthcare, Damian Hinds has said, arguing that technology could help clinicians do more for patients.
Addressing a panel at the Conservative Party Conference on 5 October, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said the expectation that the health service would return to manageable pressure once it had cleared its backlog had not been borne out.
The pressures on the NHS reflect longer-term changes in health and life expectancy, he said. People are living longer, but more are living with chronic and multiple conditions, often requiring treatment over many years. While medical advances have improved outcomes, some treatments are also more costly.
Hinds noted that the UK spends about 11 per cent of GDP on healthcare, broadly comparable with countries including Australia, Canada, France, and Japan. Real-terms spending per head is about twice what it was in 1990, he said, yet demand continues to press against the finite capacity of the health and care workforce.
Technology should give clinicians more time with patients
Hinds argued that new technologies could help shift those constraints by enabling health professionals to do more on behalf of patients. He pointed to the UK’s universities, life sciences industry and technology sector as strengths, alongside the NHS’s national reach and its extensive longitudinal data.
The examples discussed by the panel included faster diagnostics at Moorfields, generative AI tools that could shorten the design and testing of drugs, and personalised medicine informed by genomic data. Hinds also highlighted AI scribe tools, which can reduce the administrative burden on clinicians and give them more time to focus on the person in front of them.
Technology could also support people to live at home for longer and retain greater control over their care, he said. The value of these tools, in his view, lies in how they improve the work of health professionals and the experience of patients, rather than in the technology itself.
Past failures underline the need for careful delivery
Hinds said the opportunities should be pursued alongside a clear understanding of the risks. He invoked the NHS National Programme for IT, which he described as poorly designed and insufficiently informed by frontline staff before it was abandoned at a cost of £10 billion. He also recalled the loss of two discs containing the child benefit database, including bank details.
Those experiences should prompt stronger safeguards, he said, rather than deter the NHS from adopting new tools. Cyber criminals are now a persistent threat, making data security a central consideration in any modernisation programme.
The challenge, Hinds argued, is not simply whether technology exists. Organisations also need the systems and equipment to support it, as well as a culture that is willing to change working practices. That challenge is particularly significant in the NHS, given its size and complexity.
Conservative health team to develop principles
Hinds said the Conservative shadow health team would scrutinise the Government’s approach while developing its own prospectus for the next election. Technology, he said, cuts across the team’s policy areas, from hospital care and primary care to public health, mental health, social care, life sciences and research.
The team would hear from experts, clinicians and technology leaders as it works out the principles that should guide deployment. One priority, he said, is to ensure that technology is not seen by frontline staff as creating more work. It should improve the time and attention available to patients.
He also said effective partnerships would be needed across the public, private, independent and not-for-profit sectors, with the UK looking internationally to work with leaders in the field. Patient safety must be the overriding priority, he said, with data security and privacy treated as essential parts of that commitment.
Conservative Party Conference summary: a choice between waiting and leading
Hinds concluded that the UK could choose to be a “second mover”, waiting to see how other countries use these technologies before adopting them, or build on its existing strengths and act sooner.
The NHS’s national scale and data, together with the country’s universities, life sciences and technology sectors, put Britain in a strong position to pursue the opportunities, he said. The task for government and health leaders is to make sure innovation is introduced in a way that works for patients and the people caring for them.
Hinds’ remarks set out a case for faster adoption, paired with practical attention to workforce experience, implementation and public trust. The measure of success, he argued, will be whether technology helps the NHS deliver better care.
(Photo: Conservative Party)