Text messages and e-mails to help spread health message
pharmafile | January 20, 2005 | News story | Medical Communications |Â Â Â
Patients with long-term conditions are to be provided with more information and improved services to encourage them to take better care of their own health.
Under new DH proposals, people could soon start receiving information on how to stay fit and healthy by e-mail, text messages or even at the barbers.
Health Secretary John Reid said: "It's all about empowering patients and the public to take more control over their lives. Everybody is used to brushing their teeth regularly to keep the dentist at bay. We are looking to get more people to adopt this proactive approach towards their general healthcare."
In Self Care – A Real Choice the Health Secretary sets out why self care should help improve the health of people with long-term conditions, as well as the wider population.
One new self care initiative has seen a health drop-in centre set up at a local barber shop. Airedale Primary Care Trust's Health of Men project aims to encourage south Asian men, a group with a traditionally high incidence of heart problems, to have a health check at this convenient location.
The NHS has been given a target of making a 5% reduction in the number of beds used by emergency in-patient admissions over the next three years. Increasing the amount of help available to people with long-term conditions is expected to contribute towards this.
A central part of this will be the new ommunity matrons whose role will be to give one-to-one support to the most vulnerable patients with long-term conditions by monitoring their health and co-ordinating the care and support they need to improve their quality of life. The NHS aims to have recruited and trained 3,000 community matrons by March 2007.
According to the DH 10% of patients who stay in hospital for their care account for 55% of all days spent in hospital and many of these patients have multiple chronic long-term conditions.
At present around 17.5 million people may be living with a long-term condition, but incidence is on the increase and is forecast to more than double in the over-65s by 2030.
Self care was highlighted in the NHS Plan as one of the key building blocks for a patient-centred health service.
As part of the commitment to provide patients with more health information, NHS Direct was extended in December from a telephone and online service to one that could be assessed through digital television.
