‘Ridiculous’ cuts to AI cancer tech funding in England could cost lives, experts warn | Health policy
The ministers have cut millions of pounds of financing for potential artificial intelligence technology in England, which cancer experts warn of waiting times and can cause more patients to die.
The subsistence is used in radiotherapy to ensure that the treatment is as effective and safe as possible. The tumor and natural tissues are “set” on medical surveying, to ensure that radiation targets cancer while reducing damage to tissues and healthy organs.
Usually, this is a slow process and a cycle that can take doctors between 20 and 150 minutes to complete it. Self -automatic behavior takes less than five minutes and costs between 10 to 15 pounds per patient.
Research shows this Contouring AI can wait for radiotherapy More than five days for breast cancer patients, up to nine days for prostate cancer patients and three days for lung cancer patients.
In May 2024, the conservative government announced 15.5 million pounds over three years to finance artificial intelligence for cars For all hospitals that provide radiotherapy. The plan continued after the general elections, with online web seminars and the follow -up of radiotherapy departments in September.
The 51 funds that provide radiotherapy continued to fix the technology -based technology, with a number that it uses early, in the belief that funding has been secured.
But in February, in an email seen by the Guardian, Nicolas McCuluch, deputy director of the NHS England, said the financing was canceled “because of the need for further determination of the priorities of the limited investment.” She said there is no longer a central funding program to support technology implementation.
The decision means that many radiotherapy departments face a return to the handcuffal concentration, which indicates accusations that the government abandons digital and returns to theaphysical care for cancer.
UK radiotherapy analysis calculated that the removal of Contouring Ai in England will add up to 500,000 additional days to the waiting lists for breast, prostate, and lung cancer alone and leaving both the 51 boxes with a deficit of 300,000 pounds.
Waiting lists for radiotherapy for a long time. Numbers indicate that in January, 60 % of cancer patients waited to start radiation treatment, about 1,000 people, more than two months, and waiting for 23 % more than 104 days.
“The government cannot build the emergence of artificial intelligence in one breath, and to allow this to happen. Away from the transition from the analog to digital NHS, when it comes to radiotherapy, this happens that the opposite happens. This wrong decision will exacerbate the severe impact of the elections of employees,” said Professor Pat Price.
The pioneering oncologist urged ministers to intervene. “Some sections are so short that they close the machines because there is no one to operate them and at the national level, radiological vacancies are running by 8 %. This investment in artificial intelligence may reduce some of these pressures. Without it, cancer patients will wait for a longer period of treatment, and they may cost their lives.”
“This is a truly catastrophic error. Half of cancer patients will need radiotherapy at some point during their treatment. It is supposed to be the NHS party, but instead it contradicts innovation in cancer care,” said Clayef Bedel, a South Tess clinical consultant at the NHS Foundation Hospitals.
“Stopping the tap is ridiculous. We have a significant increase in cases, but we manage our work burdens because artificial intelligence helps us. If we cannot get funding to continue to use it, we will have to return to hand treatment. So we may have to employ more employees or have longer waiting lists because of this terrible decision.”
Jin Richards (not her real name), a director working in radiotherapy services, said the decision to withdraw funding for Contouring AI was felt as if it was betrayal. Her region has already implemented technology, believing that funding from NHS England was guaranteed.
She said: “Every time I see Kiir Starmer Street or Wes wandering about the importance of artificial intelligence, I feel frustrated.” “We are not talking about the future of technology, we are talking about something we use here and now and we are explaining to him an effect, however we do not have central financing for that.
“So I feel incredibly angry. If you can just put two patients in a manually radiotherapy clinic instead of four using Contouring AI, and that you have four patients coming every week, waiting lists will grow dramatically.
Spencer Godman, a professional radiotherapy official at the Association of Radio Designers, said: “Autulantications are aware of the capabilities of artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of patient care. Withdrawal of financing for artificial intelligence techniques that help identify radiation areas in radiotherapy, benefit from patients, and for patients, patients, benefit from patients, and patients more accurate,” said Spencer Godman, a professional radiotherapy official at the Association of Radio Designers.
Management spokesman health “The funding was not cut,” he said, but he did not refer directly to the Contouring Ai financing decision. “This government invests 70 million pounds in radiotherapy during the next year to replace old machines, so that patients can reach the latest available technologies.”
They said artificial intelligence was already used in various areas of health care, including breast cancer diagnosis, and that the government’s national cancer plan aims to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research.
