The technology will scan healthcare data to detect signs of abuse, serious injury, deaths or other incidents that may point to safety risks requiring urgent inspection.
Where concerns are flagged, the
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: “While most treatments in the NHS are safe, even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many.
“Behind every safety breach is a person – a life altered, a family devastated, sometimes by heartbreaking loss
“This technology will save lives – catching unsafe care before it becomes a tragedy. It’s a vital part of our commitment to move the NHS from analogue to digital, delivering better, safer care for everyone.”
The initiative follows a pledge by the health and social care secretary to overhaul health and care regulation and ensure safer, higher-quality care for patients.
It comes in response to continued scrutiny following scandals in NHS mental health and maternity services.
The warning system is being developed as part of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan to move the NHS from analogue to digital systems.
From November, a maternity outcomes signal system will launch across NHS trusts, using near real-time data to flag higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury.
The platform is built on the NHS Federated Data Platform, which enables healthcare staff to securely access patient information in one place rather than across separate systems. This is intended to reduce paperwork and manual inspection, freeing up time for patient care.
Professor Meghana Pandit, co-national medical director for secondary care, said the system would analyse routine hospital data and reports submitted by healthcare staff from community settings.
She said: “The NHS in England will be the first country in the world to trial an AI-enabled warning system to flag patient safety issues.
“The move will turbo-charge the speed and efficiency with which we identify patient safety concerns and enable us to respond rapidly to improve patient care.”
The project is one of three key digital transformations under the 10 Year Health Plan.
It follows the government’s commitment last week to a rapid national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services, aimed at delivering accountability for affected families and driving urgent improvements to safety.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of the CQC, said the regulator would also use data on inequalities in access, experience and outcomes to detect risk earlier.
He said: “We are already developing our new clearer, simpler assessment approach, and in the future our experienced teams of inspectors, led by our newly appointed chief inspectors, will be able to conduct more inspections and share feedback on the findings more quickly – so that providers can make faster improvements, and the public have timely information about care.”
