LONDON: Britain’s businesses have reined in spending as Brexit uncertainty weighs, the government said Wednesday, as it pledged £250 million for departments to prepare the country’s EU departure.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond told a cross-party panel of MPs that while the UK economy was “fundamentally robust,” British businesses and consumers were tightening their belts.
Hammond told the Treasury Select Committee that “the cloud of uncertainty over current negotiations is acting as a temporary dampener and we need to remove it as soon as possible to make some progress.”
“There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that businesses and consumers are waiting to see what the outcome is before firming up investment decisions and consumption decisions,” he added.
Speaking later in parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May said her Conservative government was “committing money to prepare for Brexit, including a no-deal scenario.”
She added: “The Treasury has committed over £250 million (SR1.23 billion) of new money to departments,” including those overseeing immigration, transport and agriculture.
Wednesday’s updates by the government come a day after the International Monetary Fund said Britain’s gross domestic product growth would slow to 1.7 percent this year from 1.8 percent in 2016 — and slow to 1.5 percent growth next year.
The EU and Britain clashed Monday after May said the ball was in the EU’s court as Brexit negotiations entered a critical fifth round.
Talks have stalled on all three of the key divorce issues — the bill Britain must pay for exiting the EU, the rights of the bloc’s citizens living in Britain, and the fate of the border between the UK province Northern Ireland and eurozone member Ireland.
The Office for Budget Responsibility warned Tuesday that British productivity growth is lower than previously forecast, dealing a blow to May’s government before Hammond delivers the country’s tax-and-spend plans in a key budget next month.
The office, Britain’s fiscal watchdog, added that it would “significantly” reduce its estimate for productivity growth over the next five years — which will in turn hit forecasts for economic growth and public finances.
Productivity refers to the average level of output produced per worker or per hour.
Hammond told the committee Wednesday that issues holding back productivity growth include under-developed infrastructure in the public sector and a skills shortage among workers.
But he also pointed to an issue he viewed as unique to Britain compared to other leading economies.
“We do have a fundamental underlying problem about productivity growth in the UK economy,” the chancellor told MPs.
“The UK distinctive issue is regional disparity. I’ve got no doubt in my mind that the staggering disparity between regional productivity performance is a major drag on the UK economy overall.
“It’s also a major social issue for us in the UK. There is no other developed economy that has such a large productivity performance gap between its capital city and its second and third city.”
UK budgets for Brexit as ‘cloud of uncertainty’ hits economy
UK budgets for Brexit as ‘cloud of uncertainty’ hits economy
AI’s shift toward proactive healthcare
- Experts reveal how AI is reducing burnout and streamlining workflows
JEDDAH: Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving from the margins of healthcare innovation into its operational core. Rather than replacing clinicians, AI is being deployed to address persistent challenges across health systems, from administrative overload and staff burnout to fragmented data and inefficient patient flow.
Speaking to Arab News, Abbes Seqqat, chief executive officer of Rain Stella Technologies, and Eric Turkington, chief product officer, discussed how AI is already transforming healthcare delivery — and why its impact is most meaningful when embedded directly into clinical workflows rather than treated as a standalone tool.
Seqqat describes AI’s role as accelerating a structural shift in healthcare delivery. “AI is accelerating the shift in healthcare from reactive to proactive care, because AI fundamentally helps detect, analyze and predict,” he said, noting that many health systems lack the resources to perform these tasks at scale.
While AI use cases in healthcare are broad, Seqqat emphasized that the most effective applications today focus on operational and clinical fundamentals, including reducing administrative burden, identifying patient risks earlier, and capturing clinical data more reliably and in real time.
RST’s portfolio reflects this approach, spanning surgical data capture and workflow automation, cloud-based electronic medical records, and health information exchange. Across these systems, the common goal is improving data quality and usability so clinicians can spend less time managing information and more time delivering care.
According to Turkington, RST’s systems rely on a mix of established and emerging AI technologies.
“Across the portfolio, we are using a wide range of AI and predictive technologies, from voice technology to reliably capture clinician inputs, to large language models that analyze and act on collected data,” he said.
A key focus has been adapting AI to regional and clinical realities. Voice models, for example, have been trained on UAE and GCC accents and grounded in medical terminology to improve accuracy in real-world settings. RST also uses retrieval-augmented generation and multi-agent AI architectures, allowing different AI components to perform specialized tasks such as classifying surgical notes, identifying unusual events, or assisting with billing and coding, Turkington explained.
DID YOU KNOW?
• AI can detect, analyze, and predict patient risks faster than traditional methods.
• Systems like Equinox use voice input and predictive analytics to actively support clinical decisions.
• AI assistants provide real-time updates, automate documentation, and improve coordination in operating theaters.
One of the central concerns around AI adoption is whether it adds complexity to already demanding clinical roles. Seqqat argues the opposite should be the goal.
“For nurses and frontline staff, AI’s greatest contribution is removing the invisible administrative friction that leads to burnout,” Seqqat said.
In operating theaters, AI systems can replace manual coordination methods such as phone calls and whiteboards by providing real-time situational awareness. By automating updates, anticipating delays, and serving as an on-demand clinical notepad, AI reduces cognitive load and allows staff to remain focused on patient care, he explained.
RST’s voice-enabled assistant, Orva, is designed specifically for perioperative environments.
Turkington said it enables hands-free documentation and coordination, helping surgical teams manage schedules and resources more effectively.
By capturing live updates through voice input, Orva can surface delays, flag bottlenecks, and prompt coordination between departments. It also assists with documentation and coding, reducing errors and supporting more accurate reimbursement— an area where incomplete records often create downstream challenges.
Electronic medical records remain central to healthcare delivery, but Turkington noted that AI can move them beyond passive data repositories.
“We designed Equinox as an EMR that enables you to spend less time with the software and more time with patients,” Turkington said.
Through voice input, automated documentation from visual annotations, and AI-generated pre-visit summaries, the system can actively support clinicians rather than slow them down. Predictive analytics, such as identifying no-show risks or highlighting care gaps, further shift EMRs toward decision-support tools rather than administrative obligations.
Both executives stressed that AI’s effectiveness depends heavily on data access and quality. Seqqat pointed to interoperability as a prerequisite rather than an afterthought.
“AI is only as powerful as the data it can access,” he said, adding that fragmented records limit both clinical insight and system-wide learning.
Health information exchanges, such as RST’s Constellation platform, enable patient data to be viewed longitudinally across providers. AI can then assist with patient identity matching and population-level analysis, allowing trends and risks to be identified across large datasets.
Turkington shared an example from an operating theatre where AI helped prevent cascading delays. When a surgical case ran late, a nurse verbally updated Orva that the patient was ready to exit. The system alerted the recovery unit, analyzed schedule conflicts, and prompted management to reassign staff before delays affected subsequent procedures.
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By tagging the cause of the delay and feeding that data into predictive models, the system helped prevent similar issues in the future — without additional manual coordination.
According to Seqqat, the primary returns from AI adoption come from combining efficiency with financial accuracy. Streamlined workflows allow providers to treat more patients without compromising care, while improved documentation reduces revenue leakage.
Looking ahead, Seqqat sees AI becoming central to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare transformation. He described its role as advancing smart hospitals, predictive patient flow, and precision medicine aligned with Vision 2030 goals.
“The role of AI in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector is evolving from a supporting technology to a foundational pillar of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation. Over the next few years, we expect to see AI move into the realm of smart hospitals, where predictive analytics optimize patient flow and AI-driven precision medicine leverages the Saudi Genome Program to provide hyper-personalized care. By unifying national health data and automating complex administrative workflows, AI will enable a more proactive, value-based healthcare model that improves patient outcomes and operational efficiency across the country.”
