This news video has appeared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4G6QcrvWY.
It has a lot to say about the general issue of automation, which I will not
detail here because I do so in this episode of Third Rail Radio, see: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2020/08/third-rail-radio-programme-89.html.
It starts with the story of "Maxi", a robot in a hospital that
performs many of the tasks that are normally the duty of the hospital portering
services, such as delivering laboratory specimens, linen and medications. It is
the porters' job, not the nurses' as the clip claims. The portering job involves
logistics, the movement of anything from anywhere to anywhere. It is something
that probably could easily be automated, by the technology of the past, let
alone today. So does this mean "RoboPorter" is here to stay? No.
Although it is possible, and indeed feasible, that non-patient contact duties
could be done by machines, what about the patient contact work? The role of a
hospital porter is not just to transport patients, but to embody the human factor.
Hospital patients are very often frightened, upset, in pain, angry and
vulnerable. Having a human being at the controls of your bed or wheelchair is a
very important part of relieving those negative feelings; and therefore the
healing process. The word "porter" originates from the Latin portare, meaning "to carry",
but the hospital porter acts and counsellor and comforter as well as carrier. Many
time, patients will actually confide in a porter more than they will with
somebody directly providing clinical interventions. The detachment of the
porters' position can allow the patient an intimacy with them that is difficult
with somebody who is injecting or stitching them. I heard some of the most
incredible stories imaginable from the patients I served during my twenty-three
years in hospital portering. How could that necessary element of therapy be
reduced to a faceless, soulless automaton attached by a metal hook to the back
of your trolley or wheelchair? Therefore I doubt if patient transport will be
automated in the foreseeable future. It won't be unless human beings themselves
can stripped of their humanity... You have twenty seconds to comply!
See here for
background: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2016/08/youtube-comment-im-pleased-with.html.
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