The NHS app becomes a “doctor in the pocket”, answers patient questions and racing hospitals, said Wes Streeting.
The app is to be revised to become a chat GPT model that can react to queries and combine patients with medical teams.
Mr. Streeting, the Minister of Health, said that the health service was exposed to an “existential threat”, unless it reacted to the demand for younger generations that were rather private.
However, he said that the app would not “replace doctors” and insisted that those without access to technology would have to gain access to care equally.
The tool enables the patient to select a provider, using information based on patient satisfaction, waiting times and the results of the healthcare system.
The change is part of the NHS reforms in the 10-year health plan of Labor, which is to be published next week, using digital options to reduce “senseless” hospital dates.
The health secretary said the changes would create a “revolution in patient power” by providing a wealth of information to make decisions.
Mr. Streeting said the modernization of the NHS was the key to his survival.
“Last year, the greatest increase in private hospital occurrence for people under the age of 40. Almost half of the young people said they would be considering privately if they needed care,” he said.
In a speech in Blackpool, Mr. Streeting said that the NHS of a generation, which organized her life at the push of a button, seemed “ever slower and outdated”.
“If you upset yourself that you will not get your dinner to you in less than an hour, how are you said that you should wait a year for a knee operation? A failure to modernize this generation that goes away from the NHS, first for your health care and then with your tax
“People will not accept to pay higher and higher taxes to finance a healthcare service that no longer meets their needs. The lack of control that feels about their own lives is deteriorated by an analog, computer-not-right.
“We can only conclude this inequality and close this risk of the future of the NHS through a revolution in patient benefits.”
According to the reforms, a new function called “My Companion” in the app will enable patients to directly question their medical teams and to help them make appointments.
A second instrument – my decisions – shows patients who have been classified in hospital services, such as:
Mr. Streeting said that you know how to get good health care should not just be an option for patients with sharp triggering.
He said: “The really exciting thing about the app is not only ease and convenience and more information. It’s really about more strength and control. I think that the relationship between doctor and patient sometimes feels like an unequal feeling.”
The changes would cope with the imbalance, allow the patient to feel more well -founded and to be better able to ask the right questions, he said.
“I think this doctor in her pocket and someone who guides you through your care will be quite powerful for people,” he added.
“Existential risk” for NHS
Mr. Streeting said that a change was necessary before the public gives up the health service, with younger generations increasingly turning away.
“If public services do not keep up with modern trends, we not only fail by definition to be services for the public, but the public will also vote with their feet. And I think that is part of the existential risk of the NHS,” he said.
However, he emphasized that access to services for people would have to be maintained without access to digital channels.
Mr. Streeting warned of the assumption that older people would not accept technology and said that many were “freed from technology” by the online purchases.
“Sometimes we assume that older people cannot use modern technology. And of course there are some people who are digitally separated and not want, and we have to make sure that the needs of these people are met. But there are in fact many older people who are also freed from technology,” he said.
Mr. Streeting said the app would introduce a “hybrid” approach in which information could be obtained from the app or a clinician, whereby “you would” replace or replace no doctors “.
He said that patients who left the hospital noticed that they “really wanted to know how long my recovery time would take, or I can’t remember what was said”, the app would contain this information in my companion or “associated with a person who can give them the right answers”.
Mr. Streeting added: “I think the most important thing is that technology is an assistant and a co-pilot. She will not replace or replace doctors.
“The NHS will always be a personal service, and we will always need doctors, we will always need nurses, we will always need allied members of the health professions. Technology can free the patient and give them more power.”
A time scale for the plans was not interpreted, but Mr. Streeting said that technology was one of the fastest areas tested in the current parliament.