UK to expand telehealth to three million people
pharmafile | January 4, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | NHS, long term conditions, telecare, telehealth
The NHS is to expand the use of telehealth, allowing doctors to remotely monitor patients with long-term conditions.
The government’s Care Services minister Paul Burstow said telehealth and telecare, which employ electronic equipment in homes to read key health signs, would be extended over the next five years to reach three million people.
The key thing is that both systems can be accessed by doctors in other locations. “I want to see more people across the country benefit from this sort of technology,” Burstow said.
Telehealth equipment reads signs such as pulse, weight, respiration and blood oxygen levels, while telecare refers to the sorts of devices – like personal pendant alarms worn around the neck or bed sensors to detect unexpected movements – which can help patients with, say, dementia to avoid unplanned admissions.
Burstow’s new focus on this reflects a trend in public health thinking over the last decade which has increasingly seen treating people at home as desirable.
There are potential health benefits for users – plus a possible £1.2 billion net efficiency gain over the next five years for a government faced with tough spending decisions.
There is some way to go before this is possible, however: to date, there are only around 5,000 telehealth users and 1.5 million pieces of telecare in use in England.
But the need is very apparent: currently 15.4 million in the country have at least one condition which can be managed but not cured, rising to a projected figure of 18 million over the next 20 years.
The government suggests that trials over the last three years involving 6,000 patients and more than 200 GP practices in Cornwall, Kent and Newham have shown people can reduce the time they have to spend in hospital and improve their quality of life.
Early results also say telehealth can lead to reductions in: mortality (a 45% drop), emergency admissions (21%), elective admissions (24%), A&E visits (15%), bed days (14%) and tariff costs (8%).
If these figures are extrapolated this could be highly significant, since the patients at which the technology is aimed use around 75% of all inpatient bed days, 65% of outpatient appointments and 55% of all GP appointments.
In total, they account for around 70% of the total health and social care spend, the government says.
Adam Hill
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