Doctors Turn To ‘80s Tech’ In Coronavirus Battle, Despite Tech Giant Claims And ‘Shiny’ New Toys

The failure to marry the big tech business world and the NHS has led to a more back-to-basics approach during the current pandemic Forbes has learned.

Doctors working on some of London’s busiest wards are using walkie talkies, pagers and WhatsApp to communicate during working hours.

The picture painted by doctors is at odds with the well-meaning PR messages from tech companies reimagining a world of augmented reality, blockchain solutions and video conferences. Some of the biggest names in tech are binding themselves to government-led healthcare plans with third parties like Peter Thiel’s Palantir, Amazon, Google, Faculty and Microsoft stepping up to the plate.

But despite what the glorious future holds, the relationship between healthcare and big tech firms in Britain today remains deeply at odds from what’s real for ordinary doctors and nurses during the coronavirus crisis.

Dirty Outside, Clean Inside

One senior doctor currently working the intensive care wards of a central London hospital tells Forbes that daily care has gone back to basics–a permanent crisis state of scrubs, Crocs and 14-hour shifts.

With honest intentions, a number of firms are trying to bridge the reality gap without much luck. When asked how the rollout of a new Microsoft tool had improved his working day, he confirmed that he had seen it on his system but could not yet use it as mobile phones and personal devices are not currently allowed onto the wards.

Another senior doctor based in London told Forbes that he’ll use the new tech when he gets the chance, but for now he was “still rocking the bleep system,” referring to his “pager” which he describes as reliable “80s tech.”

Two London doctors at the same hospital confirmed the use of “walkie talkies” during emergencies in the anaesthetics and intensive care wards, adding that there is a “dirty inside clean outside” rule in place for wards and rooms with coronavirus patients. The use of mobile phones is prohibited inside affected wards.

Although the doctors contacted by Forbes acknowledged the need for new NHS technology to help lessen the burden, the time for its introduction, according to one London specialist, is something that should have started “many months ago.”

Promoting ‘The New Shiny’

Sam Smith of MedConfidential, a group campaigning for confidentiality and consent in health and social care, has followed the relationship between the NHS and tech in detail.

Smith describes the spate of press releases aligned to the coronavirus pandemic as, “completely irrelevant” but part of the culture whereby tech companies “need to promote their new shiny.”

On the issue of firms like Microsoft and Palantir, Smith points to the fact that the NHS budget is £129 billion a year:

“How many entrepreneurs would look at a £129 billion budget and not think–I want some of that.”

Adding to the larger issue in hand, “Is tech compatible with the NHS–yes, of course it is.” But the dynamic has changed. 

In the past, he says, the approach of the big tech companies, Google’s DeepMind especially, was that the NHS should “adapt to the fact that we are unique and wonderful.”

An argument would play out, where doctors would say one thing and tech entrepreneurs would say the other. Now, during a pandemic, “there is an objective measure of what works–do people die or not?” The terms have changed.

Microsoft Teams 

Microsoft is one such business giant to raise eyebrows recently with bold claims around the implementation of tech in U.K. hospitals. Despite the obvious good intentions, one recent press release championed the use of futuristic augmented reality glasses in ventilator production, an example of how a “new shiny” can be attached to an ongoing crisis.

Microsoft also recently announced the rollout of Teams, the company’s “hub for teamwork” across the NHS for free, to help NHS staff “communicate” amid the coronavirus “outbreak.” 

Smith describes this as, “Microsoft going–‘we’ve got something that might help you, here it is’.” The matter of how to bill for it can come later, which he adds, “is probably the right thing to do.”

But how–and how well–will it work during the pandemic? Forbes contacted public body NHS Digital the “technology partner to the health and social care system”, who confirmed that MS Teams is there to “support remote working across the NHS” but would not answer questions on Microsoft’s claim that the “collaboration tool” would be used to help staff on the wards to “quickly communicate with colleagues during the coronavirus outbreak.”

The question of phones not being allowed onto certain wards was not directly addressed. NHS Digital, wary of past mistakes, said that “decisions on how [MS Teams] is used need to be made by each local organisation,” passing responsibility for its use back down onto the professionals.

A spokesperson for NHS Digital confirmed to Forbes that “the number of active users of Teams in NHS organisations has increased from 13,886 on 24th March to 38,154 on 26th March.” A spokesperson from Microsoft declined to comment.

Over in Italy, Microsoft reported a 775% increase in Teams use across a one month period, suggesting that it took a pandemic to nudge health services into the 21st century there.

Smith adds a simple message to fill the space between the tech world and Britain’s NHS during the current crisis. “Should NHS hospital groups radically change their workflow because there’s a new shiny object?, he asks, “The answer is no. If what you’ve got works for you, don’t f**k with it.”