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Written question asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated) on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 July 2026. It was answered by Baroness Merron (Labour) on Monday, 20 July 2026 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of artificial intelligence to support the early identification of hospital-acquired infections in NHS hospitals.

Answer

The UK Health Security Agency is currently exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may be used across a range of public health analyses and threat identification.

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are a major public health concern because bacteria in healthcare settings are often exposed to antibiotics, increasing the likelihood that they will develop resistance. These resistant infections are more difficult to treat and can lead to poorer patient outcomes. Through the Pathogen Risk Intelligence Modelling Project, we are generating metagenomic data from wastewater and air samples collected in hospitals and using AI and, in particular, supervised machine learning, to track the spread of antimicrobial resistance between different types of bacteria. Wastewater metagenomic surveillance is a cost-effective approach that provides a broad picture of microbial communities without targeting specific species. Our aim is to detect emerging resistance early, enabling healthcare professionals to take timely infection prevention and control measures. We are currently evaluating the performance of this approach to determine how effectively it can identify and monitor antibiotic resistance in realworld healthcare settings.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL1860
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Hospitals Infectious diseases Artificial intelligence
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk