AI will save us – by destroying everything else

Copperfield offers an optimistic outlook on what artificial intelligence could mean for GPs

Do not adjust your blog. The first bit will be the usual doom and gloom. But then I’ll take an uncharacteristic swerve into optimism. You have been warned.

So, yeah, bloody hell, those national insurance hikes. Another nail in the coffin etc etc, neatly skewered by KBS pointing out that we GPs are viewed by the Government as both private and public, depending on what fits their agenda.

But isn’t it always the way? Powerful bodies love to hold entirely contradictory views on general practice, often at the same time, to bolster their point. Thus, we’re independent practitioners yet nanomanaged into submission. We’re valiantly working at capacity yet capable of absorbing infinite workload dump. We’re the bedrock of the NHS yet treated like shit. Basically, we’re everything (when talk is cheap) but nothing (when there’s hard cash involved).

As a result, we feel abused, downtrodden and resigned. So where’s that optimism I promised? Well, here it is, requiring a bit of a swerve from tax turmoil: artificial intelligence (AI). Yes, that shiny new digital thing they have these days.

AI is currently seen as an existential threat, but I firmly believe it will save general practice. Because, when the bots take over the NHS, we’ll be the last sector standing. For example, if I was a dermatologist, I’d currently have stress-induced hives. If there’s one speciality that could be supplanted by AI tomorrow, it’s dermatology. The history is algorithmic (itchy or not, symmetrical or asymmetrical etc etc), the examination optical and clear-cut (spot or rash) and the treatments limited (cream).

So come the AI revolution, I fear that dermatologists will be first against the wall. Swiftly followed by more of the high analysis/low patient contact areas like radiology, chemical pathology, histology, microbiology, haematology, ophthalmology and so on. And then moving swiftly on to just about everything else, even surgery: when the AI asteroid hits surgical units, all that will be left is Sir Lancelot Robospratt.

What remains then of the NHS landscape? Us GPs, that’s who. True, AI can siphon off some of the mundane and protocol-driven tedium – so goodbye to PAs, pharmacists et al and hello ARRSBOTS. But AI can never replace our USP soft skills: the non-verbals, continuity, trust, advocacy, creating order from chaos, gut feeling, judgement, diagnosing normality, waiting and seeing and so on.

So bedrock? More like the whole geology of ‘planet NHS’. Which means we don’t need to get too ruffled by temporary tax blips. The future’s bright. In that we have a future. 

Dr Tony Copperfield is a GP in Essex.