Apparently only in Word format this month, July’s CSIP Telecare Newsletter looks forward, as we all do, to September’s publication of the CSCI performance figures for 2008 and a major report on the Preventative Technology Grant which “brings together information from 2006 through to 2008″. It also flags up the changes to the CSIP Networks telecare programme which will become part of Independent Living Choices and Care Closer to Home. The CSIP Telecare Newsletter will continue but it will not be duplicating Whole System Demonstrators Action Network (WSDAN) materials.
As you skim through the long section of links to other materials, don’t miss the extract from the House of Lords questions on 21 July which begins on page 7 (or 8, depending on how your Word displays) where Baroness Greengross asks the Minister Baroness Thornton to explain why it has taken quite so long to implement the whole system demonstrators and how the Government intends to ensure that their targets are met. [What? You expect a real answer?]
North of England-based Tynetec [a Telecare Aware sponsor] has announced another year of spectacular growth. The pattern established in the previous financial year, when turnover grew by more than 25%, has been matched in the year to June 2008. Details in this press release.
The London Telecare Group (of councils) has commissioned the poster below from the JCA Design agency. Thanks to generous support from the Adshel and ClearChannel agencies which manage advertising in London’s bus shelters, 409 posters are currently getting the message out to the general public. Lewisham Linkline will initially be handling all enquiries on behalf of the other councils.
The attention of lone workers, care home managers and end users is being drawn to the advantages of the GSM and GPS person location systems from UK-based company Verify & Locate. Instead of the user being restricted to home he or she can go where they like, “safe in the knowledge that their whereabouts could be located by their loved ones or professionals in a central control centre.”
Verify & Locate makes full use of current web technologies on its site to get its message across. For examples, (see the demos here) and take a look at the ‘cool’ way it presents its product brochure.
UK Government Health Minister Lord Darzi (who recently produced High quality care for all on the future shape of the NHS -comment with link to the report) is shown in this video endorsing the move towards remote patient monitoring, using a heart patient and a person with COPD as examples.
4mins 46 seconds video features services at Southampton and Nottingham.
BBC News report from West Bromwich, UK, on an ordinary Victorian house that has been converted to accommodate almost every electronically controlled device you can think of, linked to a system that responds to the owner’s movements. This does deserve to be called a ’smart home’ unlike those that are just ‘telecare enabled’. (See Soapbox item: Telecare ‘Smart Homes’ Nowhere Near Smart Enough.)
The new standard will define a common signalling protocol for social alarm and telecare systems. People wishing to review and comment on the draft standard have until 30 September 2008. More information on HPS Consulting website.
Bed blocking in NHS hospitals got worse last year and was responsible for an estimated million lost hospital days, according to a recent survey reported in the Telegraph. There is still obviously huge scope for telehealth/telecare providers to effect cost reductions, despite the possibility that the Preventative Technology Grant could have been used for the past two years to help tackle this problem.
Hmm… did I hear someone suggest that perhaps we should have a national study to see if telehealth technologies can demonstrate a positive effect on the whole health and social care system?
US WiFiMed Holdings Company, Inc. whose holdings are providers of ‘physician workflow solutions’ has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase UK-based Integrated Telecare Ltd (iTelecare). The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with iTelecare becoming the fourth wholly owned subsidiary of WiFiMed Holdings. Press release for more detail.
Tim Craig, for iTelecare, told Telecare Aware “This is a good development that will lead to many improvements for our customers and their telecare users. It demonstrates an understanding of the great potential of broadband-based systems and the extra value of working with iTelecare.” iTelecare home page.
25 English councils are to be given another £80 million between now and 2010 for additional Extra Care Housing developments. At an amazingly low average capital cost of £39,312 per dwelling, we shouldn’t complain, but it doesn’t quite square with the statement in the press release notes that the new accommodation will “demonstrate commitment to ensuring the dignity of their residents offering choice and putting personalisation high on their agenda making use of Telecare [sic], telehealth and other assistive technology to support residents to live independently in their own homes”. DH press release.
Even at these costs, are these bricks-and-mortar ’solutions’ to a few people’s problems the right way to go? If you want to delve deeper, read the scheme’s bidding criteria.
For contrast, think what could be done if the funds identified in this item from the Daily Express - about the £3.6 billion a year in pension top-up tax credits that older people fail to claim each year - were actually being spent by those people to help themselves stay independent.
By the way, I can guess what the “successful Barnsley extra care housing scheme” is going to do with its cheque for £3.8 million, but what is it going to do with the 73 year-old Sir Michael Parkinson who, according to the sloppily written first paragraph of the DH press release, comes with it?
The Silver Life Institute, based in Paris, is a research organisation that aims (amongst other things) to:
encourage consideration of ideas and questions in relation to society and old age
diffuse knowledge from research into technology, economics, medical and social sciences
propagate ideas or initiatives in the arena of public opinion
stir up the widest possible debate
It is telecare/telehealth oriented and has an active membership, newsletter and programme of meetings in France. It also has a London-based UK representative, Mona Vandame. She tells me that UK meetings are held in English.
In an apparently classical case of one hand not knowing what another hand has done before it (otherwise known as ‘corporate memory loss’) Don’t stop me now - Preparing for an ageing population, (the latest report by the Audit Commission which raises alarm bells about the unpreparedness of English councils to deal with the rising tide of older people) has only one passing reference to telecare - and that in an example box.
It does not even reference the Audit Commission’s own 2004 report on telecare which, unfortunately, was entitled Assistive Technology. I suppose four years is a long time in these days of organisational churn but, owing to this glaring omission, I give this report a miserable 2 out of 10. The 2 points are actually for the accompanying demographic maps. (They would have got 3 except the map you have to hover the mouse over for information only works with the Internet Explorer browser. Update - AC tells me this will be fixed in a few weeks.)
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