Press release: Telecare is transforming patients' lives
14 Jun 2006
Technology in the home will transform the lives of thousands of patients, according to a Future Healthcare Network and Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) report launched ahead of the NHS Confederation Annual Conference. 160,000 people will benefit from £80 million of government funding for telecare over the
next two years delivered through partnerships between local government, the NHS, voluntary sector and other key agencies including the police and fire services.
Those set to benefit include people living with long-term conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, as well as the elderly. Technologies ranging from pendant alarms and fall monitors, to sensors that monitor flooding, fire and gas escapes, will enable thousands of vulnerable people to continue to live in their own homes with the assistance of health and social care professionals and other carers.
The future will see patients and doctors coming together by phone, email, text message, digital TV and the web. The forward-looking report predicts that as technology develops, devices that help people cope with their diseases such as those that measure glucose, peak-flow, oxygen and blood pressure, will become as common as the TV set-top boxes you see in most homes today.
Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
"Telecare is good news for patients and the NHS. In many areas, it is providing a better and more efficient service to patients and helping to save the NHS money. Using new technology to enable vulnerable people to live independent lives, in their own homes, is empowering for the patient and helps reduce hospital admissions, reducing bed days.
"In this financially challenging climate, the NHS needs to find news ways of becoming more productive, as well as delivering a 21st century healthcare system that the baby boomer generation want to use. Utilising new technologies, through telecare devices, is an important way in which the NHS can become more efficient and serve patients needs better."Through partnership working with local government, the voluntary
sector and other agencies, telecare is responding to the needs of an ageing population and enabling an increasing number of people to continue to live in their own homes.
Richard Humphries, chief executive of the Care Services Improvement Partnership, said:
"Good telecare projects bring together people, partnerships and technology to enable people to receive care closer to home and to have more choice and control over their lives."
Examples of telecare working practice. Interviews with the case-studies are available on request.
Newham
NeAT (Newham Advanced Telecare) is led by the London Borough of Newham in close partnership with Newham PCT, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust, East London and City Mental Health Trust, the Metropolitan Police and Newham Voluntary Services.
The programme is currently providing a service to 310 households, helping vulnerable people, who might otherwise live in residential care or spend a significant amount of time in hospital, to live independently and with dignity in their community. NeAT hopes to roll the project out to around 4,000 households within the next two years.
The project uses sensors and companion devices in people's homes to monitor their environment and alert a central control room in the event of a problem - for example, fire (heat/smoke), hypothermia, flood, a fall, enuresis, absence from bed or chair for a predetermined period of time, or lack of movement. Technologies are also used for a smaller group of people to monitor an individual's health and detect medical emergencies, for example asthma attacks or nocturnal epileptic seizures, as well as to monitor long-standing conditions such as emphysema, diabetes and hypertension.
Newham is also introducing systems that enable the control room to be alerted if the right carer does not visit a person within an agreed time period, so that prompt action can be taken if needed. They hope that in time this can be extended to cover other services, such as the meals service, too.
In recent interviews with 25 of the service users, 100 per cent of users and carers said that they felt that the telecare system was either "important" or "very important". The particular benefits they quoted were: it helped them remain in their own home; gave them the knowledge that they were safe and secure in their home; and helped them to get good healthcare support when they need it.
Although the principal motivation for NeAT is to support independent living, Newham is hopeful that their independent living platform will also generate cost savings. These will likely begin to accrue soon - initially in the local acute trust as hospital admissions are reduced and then in the council through reduced admissions to residential care.
NeAT will be demonstrating a show 'smart home' at the NHS Confederation annual conference, 14-16 June, demonstrating the possibilities of telecare and supporting independent living.
Kent
The Active Living Telecare project in Kent, led by Kent County Council working with the local NHS, voluntary sector, housing, police and fire services, is providing support to 400 people living in their own homes, with the help of technology and community response services. The scheme has proved so successful that they hope to extend it across the county.
Unintrusive and flexible, it is a remote monitoring service which can help transform the lives of those who wish to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. It brings reassurance to its hundreds of users who all now have immediate help available, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, at the touch of a button.
The Kent telecare project aims to enrich and improve the quality of life for people by increasing their levels of safety and independence, in their own homes, while enabling them to retain their privacy and control over their own individual lifestyles.
Two quotes from a service-user and a carer demonstrate the difference that the service has made to local people:
"As I tend to be prone to falls, they arranged for an alarm system to be installed in my home and, some time later, a young man arrived here and fitted it for me. He, too, was very kind and friendly and explained to me in detail the purpose of each alarm button. I am truly grateful for the peace of mind this has given me and I am hoping it means that I will be able to stay in my own home for the remainder of my life." A service user.
"A member of the Telecare team along with an occupational therapist visited me. They spent a long time with my wife and myself discussing our many problems. They were kind, understanding and excellent listeners and they came up with ways in which we could be helped. Alarm systems were put into place, which alerted myself whenever my wife decided to leave her chair or bed at night. These alarms have eased my life in the way that I can now prepare meals or do some washing and have confidence that I will be alerted if my wife is having problems." A carer.
The future?
Scientists at Brunel University have developed a 'companion' tool - a computer screen attached to a barcode reader that the user scans over bar codes to perform a variety of tasks. The 'Companion' is currently being trialed by 47 people in the South West to help them do their shopping.
The system also has potential healthcare and other applications. ID cards can be scanned into the system and activities recorded; for example, when a health visitor has dressed an ulcer or taken a blood pressure reading. A pharmacist could e-mail prescription details to the 'Companion', which could then remind the patient to take the drugs. Medicine packets can also be scanned so the patient can check the identity of drugs and when they should take them. The system could also be attached to entry-phones to show who is at the door and be used to email meals-on-wheels services.
Professor Heinz Wolff, previously from the Great Egg Race, will be demonstrating the 'companion' tool to delegates at the NHS Confederation annual conference on 14 June.
ENDS
Notes for editors
1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 90 per cent of the organisations that make up the NHS. Its members include the majority of NHS acute trusts, ambulance trusts, foundation trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
2. Future Healthcare Network (FHN) is made up of organisations at the leading edge of thinking about future healthcare developments. It aims to address the large gap between current levels of knowledge about healthcare and what will be required by 2010 and beyond. It is part of the NHS Confederation. www.fhn.org.uk
3. CSIP works as part of the Department of Health, through eight regional development centres, to help improve outcomes for people with health and social care needs in England. Go to www.csip.org.uk for further information about our work.
Contact details
Contact Media Relations Manager Joanna Clason on 020 7074 3306 or 07798 571078 or Senior Media Officer Amy Darlington on 020 7074 3304 or 07767 770309.
Back to media centre
