Robots could offer NHS major dose of efficiency ‘Chat bots’ could replace admin jobs and save taxpayer cash
ROBOTS should replace 250,000 council, civil service and NHS workers across the UK to save money and improve services according to a new report.
The report by think tank Reform also recommends adopting an Uberlike business model and using more locum doctors and supply teachers to plug holes in services and go where demand is greatest.
It is the latest report to highlight the rise of the robots or automation of many jobs over the next few years.
It suggests that artificially intelligent ‘chat bots’ could replace 137,000 government administrators by 2030 as well as 90,000 NHS administrators and 24,000 GPs receptionists.
West Bromwich East MP and Labour deputy leader Tom Watson last year called for the Government, businesses and industry to plan ahead for the rise of robots – warning that it was not just factory production line jobs which were under threat from automation.
He said: “This report shows automation could be harnessed to create more efficient public sector which could ultimately save taxpayers money.
“But it also underlines the fact that new technology can lead to job losses and transform occupations that provide people with that secure employment. We need to think carefully as a country about the challenges that automation will create as well as the benefits it brings.”
Driverless cars are already in development and could replace delivery driver jobs, computer systems can diagnose common diseases, analyse pages of accounts or data and perform many administration tasks quickly and less expensively than a human worker.
Some academics have suggested the economy needs to shift to more three and four-day weeks and warned that there needed to be measures in place to ensure that the profits of automation are shared by those whose jobs it replaces.
The Reform report said that growing automation would save the taxpayer £2.6 billion a year.
Report author Alexander Hitchcock said: “Such a rapid advance in the use of technology may seem controversial, and any job losses must be handled sensitively. But the result would be public services that are better, safer, smarter and more affordable.”
We need to think carefully as a country about the challenges that automation will create Tom Watson MP, left