We need to act fast to close the NHS AI safety gap (20 August 2025)

Summary

NHS England wants to make the NHS “the most AI-enabled care system in the world”.

But despite the 10 year health plan’s ambition, we’re deploying AI under safety standards last substantively updated in 2018, built on a 2013 framework – well before generative models, adaptive algorithms, or real-world deception were in scope.

A review finally began in December 2024, five years after AI became a strategic priority with the Topol Review. In that time, we moved from cautious pilots to large-scale deployments while safety frameworks stood still.

Clinical risk standards DCB0129 and DCB0160 were built for predictable, fixed-logic software. They assume systems behave consistently, testing reveals all risks, and deployment matches testing. AI breaks all three.

Current safety standards can’t keep up with AI, writes Yvette Khozam, electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) lead pharmacist at West London NHS Trust, in this article for Digital Health.