Hospitals in England are using artificial intelligence to help reduce waiting times in emergency departments this winter.
The A&E forecasting tool predicts when demand will be highest, allowing trusts to better plan staffing and bed space. Prediction algorithms are trained on historical data including weather trends, school holidays and rates of flu and Covid to determine how many people are likely to attend A&E.
The government said the technology allows health care workers “to do the things they are trained to do rather than being tied to bureaucratic processes”.
Digital Government and Data Minister Ian Murray said: “The gateway to the NHS is the A&E department. You have no idea how many people will come through the door, although you may have some analytical evidence that Saturday nights may be busier than Tuesday nights, for example, and winter may be busier than summer, unless you have a heat wave.
“This (prediction tool) helps us (predict) how busy their A&E departments are going to be. If you put it into context and look at seasonal trends, as well as how busy the days are going to be, you can put your resources in the right place.”
Murray said hospitals could deploy more consultants in certain specialties or more nursing staff in the busiest departments.
“Then you can maybe look at freeing up beds down the pipeline, maybe look at how you might need to get more people out of the hospital quicker and free up those beds,” he said.
The A&E forecasting tool is available to all NHS trusts in England. Around 50 NHS organizations are already using it, and, according to Murray, they are “seeing good results”.
“This is about modernizing the NHS, using tools to allow clinicians and professionals to do the things they are trained to do, rather than being tied down by bureaucratic processes, to allow resources to be targeted where they need to be targeted,” he said.
The tool is part of Keir Starmer’s AI Exemplars programme. In January, the Prime Minister said that artificial intelligence would “bring incredible change to our country”.
Professor Julian Redhead, national clinical director of urgent and emergency care at NHS England, said: “Early and efficient planning is vital to managing busy periods like winter, and new technology such as AI tools have the potential to make a real difference to the way we manage our patients’ care.”
