Britain¡¯s National Health Service has become a story of crisis. A lack of money, a lack of staff, even a lack of beds. The coronavirus pandemic almost broke it ¡ª and the hangover still might. This winter has played out against a backdrop of record waiting lists, ambulances unable to deliver patients to hospitals and picket lines of striking nurses.
For a host of medical practitioners and scientists and tech firms and politicians, the NHS ¡ª the U.K.¡¯s biggest employer ¡ª has finally reached a tipping point after 75 years, and the time has come to remake it.
Programs and studies under way include ¡°virtual wards¡± for remote care, family doctors paying energy bills for vulnerable patients, and scientists using artificial intelligence to predict the impact of cold and damp homes on children¡¯s health. Their shared focus is finding ways to reduce the burden on the NHS by keeping people out of its overstretched hospitals.
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