Tunstall’s key focus at the event is its 5 Steps to Telehealth Success programme, a robust implementation process which helps health providers to ensure that telehealth is deployed successfully to the right patients, and embedded within care pathways. Tunstall provides dedicated, clinical support throughout the telehealth journey, from engagement to deployment and governance. 

The 5 step approach covers care pathway optimisation, patient identification and risk stratification, clinical review and care planning, referral generation, and post-deployment review and support.  This ensures positive outcomes for patients and clinicians, and accelerates financial returns.

Tunstall will also be demonstrating its latest mymedic II home telehealth system, which is designed to help people with long-term health needs to monitor their own conditions from home. The device enables users to easily self-monitor their vital signs to ensure timely intervention, while enhancing understanding of their health.

Designed specifically for the needs of patients with poor dexterity and eyesight, the system’s touchscreen tablet design gives easy access to functions and offers limitless flexibility for future applications, while Bluetooth technology makes the process of sharing information faster and more efficient.  New peripherals for mymedic II include a blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter and weighing scales, enabling the solution to help manage a range of long-term conditions.

Tunstall is working together with risk stratification provider Health Intelligence to enhance and support the delivery of its fully managed telehealthcare service, Tunstall LifeCare.  A proven risk stratification process is essential for delivering an effective telehealthcare service at scale, as it identifies the most appropriate patients for the service, accelerating benefits to service users and maximising care provision and ROI for the provider. 

Tunstall LifeCare and Health Intelligence’s population-based Risk Stratification and Case Finding modules offer local commissioners a robust, secure and rapidly deployable solution that helps the NHS to improve diagnosis, promote prevention and deliver cost savings.

David Cockayne, Managed Services Director said: 

For telehealth programmes to be truly successful at scale, it’s important that each patient is carefully selected based on specific criteria and thresholds. Commissioning 2013 is a great opportunity for us to showcase how our advanced solutions and servicesand our partnership with Health Intelligence can help commissioners and clinicians in identifying the patients who will benefit most from telehealth, and deliver the most positive outcomes for patients, clinicians and commissioners.

Building on the activities of ‘eHealth Week’ [13 -15 May], the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care (CCHSC) which is part of the Public Health Agency (PHA), was delighted to welcome delegates from the Finnish Health Care System to the TF3 Telemonitoring NI centre in Holywood to see first-hand the fantastic support being offered to people who live with long-term conditions across Northern Ireland.

Telemonitoring NI, a leading example of connected health, was being showcased at the eHealth exhibition and Northern Ireland Connected Health Ecosystem International Event which took place last week. The Telemonitoring NI service provided by the TF3 Consortium, has to date benefited over 1,500 patients with long-term conditions in Northern Ireland, helping them to better manage their health.

Eddie Ritson, Programme Director of the CCHSC, said:

After presenting at the Finland Plaza this week in Dublin on the Telemonitoring NI service, I was delighted to welcome delegates from Finland to the TF3 Telemonitoring NI centre in Holywood, to see first-hand the telemonitoring service in action.

Colleagues learned about the clinical triage service, which is delivered in Northern Ireland by nurses to monitor readings such as blood pressure and weight on a daily basis. This remote management allows patients who would otherwise have to travel to their GP or hospital to be monitored in their own homes. This means less stress for patients and helps them in understanding and managing their condition.

Telemonitoring is an excellent example of how modern technology can help deliver a better service for the patient, allowing them to take control and manage their condition with confidence. It also allows more efficient use of the healthcare professional’s time and skills.

The service has an ambitious programme for development and next year plans to accelerate the uptake of telehealth into broader clinical conditions and expand into telecare. The visit proved to be a great success allowing us to demonstrate to the Finnish Health Care System how far the service has come and to share experiences on the delivery of telehealth.

Leading the Finnish delegation, Kalevi Virta, Independent Consultant,  eWELL Oy and Coordinator, at the Centre for Health and Technology, City of Oulu, said:

The monitoring solutions we viewed are an excellent example of how today’s technology can be used to create meaningful services to improve patient care. 

The implementation and outcomes of the activity are very encouraging and will aid our own development work. We saw many dedicated and satisfied professionals who have clearly seen the great advantage they have when working with the modern monitoring based service. They have created an innovative but practical service concept for the best of their patients.

We are looking forward to cooperating with the CCHSC, to exchange experiences and also to jointly generate an even better service to support people by enhancing their quality of life in their own homes!

Kristoffer Axelsson, Chief Executive Officer at Tunstall Nordic said:

The results from the first Tunstall telemonitoring deployments in Finland have shown very positive outcomes, and it’s great for those engaging with telehealth to see successful programmes first hand, learning lessons in the delivery and implementation of services to help people manage long-term conditions more effectively.

For further information please visit www.telemonitoringni.info

Birmingham City Council has celebrated the first anniversary of their joint city-wide telecare service, which has to date benefitted 7,000 people across the city. The Birmingham Telecare Service, which aims to support 27,000 people by 2015, enables residents with a wide range of support-needs to remain living independently in their own homes.

To celebrate the first anniversary, the Birmingham Telecare Service (BTS) hosted an event in partnership with Birmingham City Council, the Good Governance Institute and Tunstall to enable service users to speak directly about their relationship with telecare, and share their experiences with other people using the telecare service.

The event was attended by 50 service users from the BTS, who were on hand to discuss how telecare has made them feel safe and secure, enabling them to live independently with the added reassurance that support is available whenever they need it.

Councillor Steve Bedser, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing at Birmingham City Council commented:

I’ve not been to many first birthday’s where I’ve felt this proud. This event was particularly important as it enabled 50 telecare service users from across the city to tell us about their experiences. It proved to be a fantastic opportunity to gather great feedback with masses of enthusiasm, and ideas for how we can take telecare forward. We hope to extend the scope of services to those with learning disabilities or people living in residential care homes, and plan to introduce telehealth in the near future.

At the event, Peter Hay, Strategic Director Adults and Communities at Birmingham City Council, highlighted the importance of citizen engagement and how the integration of an independent quality assurance programme by the Good Governance Institute (GGI) is ensuring a service-user approach to service delivery.

The Good Governance Institute (GGI) is working with Birmingham City Council (BCC) to develop a pioneering quality assurance programme, centred on the needs of service users from the Birmingham Telecare Service. The programme of work has at its heart the experience and participation of telecare service users themselves, designed to engage with service users and their advocates through an established independent quality review board, the Citizen’s Quality Advisory Group (CQAG), and direct contact with telecare service users, their families and carers.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan said:

Over the last year, GGI has spoken directly to more than 500 service users in Birmingham, run focus groups for dozens more, and visited the homes of those users who couldn’t make it to one of our group events. This event was not just a celebration of the role that service users played in developing BTS, but a continuation of the work we are all doing to ensure that they are in a position to offer informed opinions about the service they receive. We’re delighted to have been part of ensuring that BTS’s first anniversary has been marked with an event for those who actually use the service.

During the event, Peter Hay commented:

We’re holding to our ambition that social care is about the quality of life that people experience, and we’re doing so against a context where we’re seeing a dramatic fall in our resources. We’re not lowering our sights or our ambition, but to meet our objectives we need to do things differently.

Telecare is a crucial new opportunity to meet the needs of our residents in a cost effective way, and events like this are great examples of how we are keen to listen, learn and improve what we do.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director at Tunstall concluded:

Tunstall as an organisation brings care home for 2.5m people across 40 countries. Our innovative and person-centred partnership with Birmingham is an inspiration for the advancement of telecare in the UK. It unites people with technology like never before to deliver a first-class support service that is improving the lives of thousands of individuals across the city.

Gerald, a carer for his wife and daughter, said:

I wasn’t sleeping because I was worried about my daughter, and I wouldn’t want to go out much as I wanted to make sure everything was okay at home. With telecare, I don’t need to worry about it, or phone someone every 5 minutes. The system will notify us if there is a problem.

The Birmingham Telecare Service has commissioned a film in partnership with Tunstall and GGI, which provides highlights from the event and includes interviews with service users and senior level speakers from Birmingham City Council, Tunstall and GGI. You can watch it here

TF3 brings together the significant expertise of Tunstall, Fold and S3 Group to form the largest deployers of telehealth and telecare services in the UK. The consortium members are actively involved in over 100 dedicated telehealth initiatives across Europe, and work closely with health and social care providers to support independent living and deliver solutions that reduce the unnecessary reliance on secondary care.

While at the event, TF3 will showcase the success of its Telemonitoring NI service, which was recently commended by Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, Edwin Poots at a celebratory event held in Stormont. The service, which is provided by TF3 in conjunction with five health and social care trusts, represents an investment of £18m by the Department of Health, Social Services and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care (CCHSC), part of the Public Health Agency. It is expected to benefit up to 20,000 patients across NI by helping to improve health outcomes for patients with long-term conditions through better engagement with clinicians and enhanced self-management.

Simon Arnold, Director at the TF3 Consortium said:

In its current role as President of the Council for the EU, Ireland has the opportunity to shape and influence policy and legislation, and part of their objective is to work towards enhancing public health in the EU, as well as innovation in the health sector.

The Telemonitoring NI programme is an excellent example of how modern technology can help deliver a better service for the patient through innovation and teamwork, and this Pan-European event provides us with the perfect opportunity to position ourselves as experts in large-scale service delivery.

TF3 will also demonstrate a range of telehealth and telecare solutions designed to help people with long-term health needs who live at home monitor their own conditions.

eHealth Week 2013 combines two main events: the High Level eHealth Conference co-organised by the European Commission and the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and WoHIT (World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition) organised by HIMSS Europe. The event not only brings together industry partners and providers from across Europe, but also important government and regional decision makers.

But the three sectors must work more closely together if housing is to deliver effective solutions, the two organisations have said.

The report is based on two summits held by CIH earlier this year - delivering housing, health and care outcomes – which was attended by representatives from the Department of Health, leading housing providers and experts from all three sectors.

The report addresses how redesigned housing solutions can improve health and wellbeing, with particular emphasis on the role of assistive technology. 

It highlights some of the ways housing providers can help their counterparts in health and social care save money and improve outcomes for people – by enabling people to be discharged from hospital more quickly, monitoring risk through technology and support services, and enabling delivery of health services either in or close to people’s homes.

It also shows how housing offers to local GPs and Clinical Commissioning Groups can be tailored to local circumstances and needs across a wide range of services, including supported housing, housing-related support, housing improvements, adaptations, palliative home care and telehealthcare.

The report features examples from providers including Home Group, One Housing Group and Riverside, as well as local authorities including Birmingham City Council.

Domini Gunn, Director of Health and Wellbeing at CIH consultancy said:

There are new opportunities for housing to engage with health and care within new health and wellbeing organisations and commissioning arrangements. We need to demonstrate the value and cost benefits of investment in housing and housing-related support more effectively to our health and social care colleagues.

This report is designed to help identify opportunities and develop a business case for housing-related support, including telecare and telehealth, service commissioning and development.

Tunstall Managing Director Simon Arnold said:

The report plays a crucial role in highlighting the opportunities and challenges faced by housing, health and social care. Events such as the CIH summits bring together key players from across the sectors, all of whom have a common interest in promoting the application of assistive technology. It is a privilege for us to take part in the summits and contribute to the report, and we look forward to working with CIH closely in the future.

Read the report Delivering housing, health and care outcomes

Further summits

CIH and Tunstall are pleased to announce that more summits will be running in 2013 – at Housing 2013, CIH’s major housing conference in Manchester. The discussions will be focused on how we will fund the care of an ageing population as outlined in the Dilnot report, and how current and redesigned housing solutions, incorporating assistive technology, can provide effective outcomes for individuals and communities

Check out the CIH Ideas Exchange:

25 June, 9.15 – 10.45

26 June, 9.15 – 10.45

27 June, 12.00 – 1.30

Register your interest for the summits with katie.anderson@tunstall.com

Tunstall, the leading telehealthcare provider, has launched one of the world’s most sophisticated fall detection personalised alarm that automatically calls for help in the event of a fall.  The new device, which is manufactured in the UK, could save hundreds of lives a year and the NHS millions of pounds.

The automatic pendant offers an unprecedented detection algorithm that reacts to changes in barometric pressure, acceleration and static orientation and determines whether a fall has taken place. It is likely to replace tens of thousands of the 1.7m ‘red button’ telecare pendants currently in use in the UK.

The alarm wirelessly connects with a base station in the home of the person using the system. Once the fall is detected, the base station automatically dials the response centre and an operator uses the powerful loudspeaker in the home unit to talk to the person and arrange appropriate help, or call the emergency services if unable to raise a response.

To date, manual alarms have depended on the person to press the button, but research from NICE has shown that many elderly and frail people with alarms thought they had pressed the button when they had not, could not reach their alarm or see any advantage in having a pendant. Some were confused what to press, or when*.

Falls are the leading cause of mortality resulting from injury in people aged above 75 in the UK and a major cause of disability. Some 14,000 people die annually in the UK as a result of an osteoporotic hip fracture.** More than 400,000 older people in England attend A&E departments following a fall. Age UK estimates one-in-three people over the age of 65 suffer a fall each year, costing the NHS an estimated £4.6m a day – £1.67 billion a year.

The new, small, waterproof, lightweight pendant is also the only device automatically to notify the telecare response centre if it has not registered movement for a period of time, suggesting that the person has not worn it.

Simon Arnold, MD, Tunstall Healthcare, says:

This is a major development which provides an unprecedented safeguard for the elderly and disabled. It affords them independent living with the knowledge that if they suffer a fall, but cannot manually activate an alarm, help will soon be at hand

The iVi™ pendant can be ordered through a Local Authority, or direct from Tunstall, as part of a monitoring service.

For more information on the iVi please click here

* http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a2227
** NICE “Clinical practice guideline for the assessment and prevention of falls in older people” (Chapter 3 – Background to the current guideline)
http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/10956/29585/29585.pdf

Experts from across Northern Ireland gathered this week to mark the success of the Telemonitoring NI service. The service, which is being provided by the TF3 Consortium in conjunction with the five health and social care trusts, is designed to transform patient care across Northern Ireland by enabling better control over their health and improving care outcomes, and has benefitted 1,500 patients to date.

Health Minister Edwin Poots said:

Telemonitoring NI continues to grow and expand.  To date the service has benefited around 1,500 patients in Northern Ireland, with long-term conditions helping them to better manage their health.

Chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and COPD affect around three quarters of people over the age of 75. This is the generation for whom transport and mobility pose the biggest problems. The Telemonitoring NI service will allow thousands to monitor their vital signs without having to leave their own homes. It means that patients are able to understand and manage their condition better. Many say it has improved their confidence and given them peace of mind.

Telemonitoring NI is an excellent example of how the Health Service can innovate using modern technology to deliver a better service for our patients.

The ‘Telemonitoring NI celebratory event’ was hosted by the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care (CCHSC), which is part of the Public Health Agency (PHA), and the Department of Health. It was held in order to showcase the Telemonitoring NI service, and recognise Health and Social Care practitioners who are the vanguards of implementing telemonitoring.

Dr Eddie Rooney, Chief Executive of the PHA, said:

Telemonitoring is a leading example of the application of connected health, and means that people who have been diagnosed with conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, transient ischemic attack or a stroke can have their vital signs monitored from their own home.

The contract for the delivery of the Telemonitoring NI service was awarded to the TF3 Consortium in March 2011 by the CCHSC. The consortium works in partnership with the five health and social care trusts to deliver remote monitoring services to people across Northern Ireland.

During the event, Simon Arnold, UK & Ireland Managing Director at the TF3 Consortium gave a talk on how telemonitoring has enabled Northern Ireland to transform care, putting the individual at the centre of its care model and promoting better outcomes for the user, carer and family.

Simon said:

Telehealth forms part of an important element in the modernisation of the Northern Ireland health and social care delivery system. TF3 is a unique consortium of Tunstall Healthcare, Fold Telecare and S3 Group and together we are delivering a clinically-led managed service to support patients from referral to discharge. This represents a long-term commitment and we are investing in the service to keep Northern Ireland at the forefront globally as a technology-enabled connected health eco-system.

The Government’s ‘Transforming Your Care’ programme, which includes a strategic assessment of all aspects of health and social care in Northern Ireland, recommended the greater use of telehealth as a key enabler, providing greater support to individuals and health care professionals through telehealth monitoring. We are delighted and proud to see the Telemonitoring NI service being commended for its success so far.

Dr Rooney continued:

Not only does Telemonitoring NI help patients manage their condition; it provides healthcare professionals with information to enable them to make appropriate decisions about patient care, meaning there is less need for hospital admission, allowing for better use of resources. Telemonitoring also helps carers by ensuring they are better informed and supported.

The event this week brought together delegates to review recent developments within telemonitoring services, showcasethe achievements of the service, promote the benefits of remote monitoring and aims to encourage adoption of the telemonitoring service within the wider Heath and Social Care sector.

Developed as part of Riversmead’s older people’s strategy, the state-of-the art living complex provides an outstanding place for older and vulnerable people to live.

The completion of this £7 million high-quality development included a £3.5 million grant from the Homes and Communities Agency and £600,000 from East Herts Council.

The new Calton Court comprises 53 one and two bedroom flats. It features communal lounges, bathing spas and treatment room, hair and beauty salon, laundry room and internet area with Wi-Fi facilities. Hallways and rooms are large enough to accommodate wheelchairs, bathrooms are equipped with level access showers for ease of use and each floor is colour coordinated to aid orientation. The scheme also house’s local doctor’s surgery, Wallace House Branch Surgery, which is open to both Calton Court residents and the wider community.

As a flexicare housing scheme, tailored care and support is provided on site 24 hours a day by Saga Homecare, to meet residents' changing care needs.

Riversmead staff joined residents and their families, the project’s contractor Hill Partnerships, architect Kyle Smart Associates, local councillors and partners for the afternoon celebrations. Riversmead Chairman Kevin Brush and Mark Prisk MP spoke to guests about the development and the benefits it provides for the residents living at the scheme, and the wider community who can enjoy using the communal facilities.

A celebratory cake and ribbon were cut by Mark Prisk MP to commemorate the occasion, whilst resident Rene Lavelle received a bouquet of flowers as the oldest resident living at Calton Court at 97 years old.

Mark Prisk MP, said:

I was here at the beginning of the Calton Court project only a few years ago and it’s great to come back because it was just an idea then; a set of drawings. It’s only when you’ve built something you have an understanding of what it’s all about. I want to pay tribute to Riversmead for being forward thinking, not just about the bricks and mortar, but for what actually makes it a home; the facilities, the flexible care and the community support.

Paul Huckstep, Riversmead’s Executive Director, said:

This is our second flexicare scheme in East Herts, enabling us to offer more of our local older and vulnerable population a home for life in a beautiful setting.

Terry Fuller, Executive Director for the Homes and Communities Agency said:

I found the scheme to be inspiring. The thoughtful design throughout is a real pleasure to see and I am sure the residents will be very happy making it their home.

Kevin Brush, Riversmead’s Chair of the Board, said:

One of the things I love about Calton Court is that we have put older people back in to the centre of our community again. We have got a really great facility here, which has allowed residents to come from other family homes, releasing these vital homes back into the community.

I want to thank all of our partners for making this possible, but particularly I would like to thank our residents and their friends and families, because without their input Calton Court wouldn’t be what it is today.

Irene Mason has experienced first hand the benefits of living at Calton Court.

Irene lived in her three bedroom house in Hertford for 51 years before moving to a one bedroom flat at the scheme in January 2012.

She applied to move to downsize her home, but wanted to stay in the same area.

Irene said:

The location is great. I can bring my shopping in through my patio doors and enjoy watching the children walking past from school.

The carers and staff are so helpful – nothing is too much trouble.

Irene has no current care needs, but will be taking up an emergency package after her impending knee operation for extra support and assistance.

It’s a god send living here – I am so happy.

For more information about flexicare housing and Calton Court, please call Customer Services on 01992 514 514.

13th-14th March, ExCeL London

At this year’s Health Innovations Expo in London, Tunstall Healthcare will be demonstrating how its services are transforming the future of healthcare by promoting patient education and offering wellbeing services that are designed to support patient self-management. Working in partnership with its customers, Tunstall offers tailored guidance that ensures better quality care and increased support for each patient.

Tunstall will showcase its 5 Steps to Telehealth Success, which helps support customers in the delivery of successful telehealth services. Tunstall provides dedicated, clinical support throughout the telehealth journey, from engagement to deployment and governance. This unique approach focuses on delivering positive outcomes for patients and clinicians, smoothing the deployment process and accelerating financial returns.

Tunstall will also be previewing its latest mymedicII home telehealth system. Its touchscreen tablet design gives easy access to its functions like never before and offers limitless flexibility for future applications, while the latest Bluetooth technology makes the process of sharing information faster and more efficient.

Tunstall will also show its next-generation triagemanager telehealth software, which integrates with GP systems including SystmOne and Adastra, to offer a secure, scalable and flexible solution for providers, ensuring telehealth services can be integrated seamlessly with health and social care pathways.

While at the show, Tunstall will outline its plans to develop a new myhealth proposition, a vision that begins with the launch of the mymedicII. myhealthis a platform that has been designed to shape the future of service delivery by giving users access to a range of solutions from Tunstall including wellbeing advisory services, mycare, myclinic, mylife patient portal and mymedic. This will also offer seamless and secure integration with GP systems to support medication compliance and improve communication between patients and clinicians.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director at Tunstall said:

Tunstall’s myhealth reflects our vision for the future of healthcare, encouraging better self-management and promoting patient education. We are proud to be presenting our market leading services in partnership with our customers.

Clinical advisors will be on hand to offer more information on Tunstall’s future plans, along with providing examples of successful telehealth programmes including Tunstall’s work with NHS Gloucestershire, Birmingham City Council, and as part of the TF3 Consortium in Northern Ireland. Representatives from Tunstall will also be available in the Dementia Zone to discuss the latest developments in telecare, and how this technology can help support people with dementia and their carers.

You can visit Tunstall at stand C-09 to learn more about Tunstall’s work and find out about their latest telehealthcare solutions.

Good Governance Institute (GGI) is working with Birmingham City Council (BCC) to develop a pioneering programme, centred on the needs of service users from the Birmingham Telecare Service. The report from GGI, ‘Birmingham Telecare Service: Establishing an independent quality assurance process’ documents in full the first stage of this work, and the framework for the ongoing programme.

Birmingham City Council partnered with Tunstall to roll out a large-scale, city-wide telecare service, which is the first of its kind in the UK. The service is expected to benefit 27,000 people over three years, with over 6000 people currently benefitting from telecare. As part of this, GGI was commissioned to develop and run an independent quality assurance programme in order to build an in-depth understanding of quality issues in telecare services.

The programme of work developed by GGI has at its heart the experience and participation of telecare service users themselves. It has been designed to engage with service users and their advocates through an established independent quality review board, the Citizen’s Quality Advisory Group (CQAG), and direct contact with telecare service users, their families and carers. This is to ensure citizens’ input is not limited to those participating in the review board.

Jon Tomlinson, Joint Director of Commissioning at Birmingham City Council said:

Our telecare service looks to support vulnerable adults to live independently in their own homes for longer, and we are expecting over 27,000 people to benefit over the next three years. By working alongside GGI on this quality assurance programme, we are aiming to use the findings to make improvements in all service areas, while also contributing to a national framework that will ensure high standards in telecare service delivery.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of GGI and a Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute said:

No two telecare users’ needs are the same. We believe that all telecare services should be built with a focus on what elements users’ value, to ensure they are being delivered in the most effective way according to people’s needs.

This is a ground-breaking opportunity to develop a clear understanding of the quality issues in telecare services, and for the Birmingham Telecare Service to contribute in a much wider context to a national framework for telecare services, using the report as a basis for best practice. Our template for telecare services will ensure commissioners are delivering a service that is built around the needs and expectations of both the service users and their carers.”

The first stage of the programme involved working with service users and their carers to establish their satisfaction with the telecare service. GGI established that the service was highly valued by those who used it, and identified it as making a significant difference to residents’ lives.

One service user commented:

I’ve found that since I’ve been given telecare, I’ve got more confidence to go out. At one time, I wouldn’t go anywhere; I would just sit in the house and cry. But since I got telecare, I’ve now moved near my family and I’ll go out and do my own shopping.

Going forward GGI is looking to build on its initial findings, finalising the appointment of the CQAG, devising a quality assurance dashboard and running the first cycle of the quality assurance process, which will involve ongoing direct work with service users through focus groups and interviews. GGI will also provide quarterly reports for the CQAG, and conduct annual service user experience surveys for the duration of the programme.

You’ll find various case studies from the Birmingham Telecare Service on the Good Governance Institute’s Vimeo site.

Leaders across Europe have gathered together in Brussels to demonstrate the key role of connected health technology in improving patient outcomes as well as promoting the local economy.

Telemonitoring, a leading example of connected health, was being showcased at the Northern Ireland Connected Health exhibition and conference event.  The telemonitoring service, provided by the TF3 Consortium,has to date benefited over 1400 patients with long-term conditions in Northern Ireland, helping them to better manage their health. 

Visitors to the TelemonitoringNI stand included Peter Robinson, First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Edwin Poots, Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), Andrew McCormick, permanent secretary for the DHSSPS, Diane Dodds, MEP, Martina Anderson, MEP and Jim Nicholson, MEP.

The service enables nurses to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs such as blood pressure and weight on a daily basis. This clinical triage allows patients to be monitored in their own homes, where previously they would have had to travel to their GP or hospital. This means less stress for patients and helps them in understanding and managing their condition. 

David Cockayne, Director, TF3 Consortium said: 

As a strategic partner to the health and social care organisations, TF3 is proud to contribute to Northern Ireland’s growing knowledge-based economy and continues to invest in developing remote monitoring services across the country to build on the over 1400 patients that have already benefited from its support.

Mr Poots, who led a group of businesses, universities and health care representatives to Brussels, said it was a great opportunity for Northern Ireland. 

Our mission here is simple: demonstrate how the Connected Health and Prosperity agenda is working in Northern Ireland and we will attract more interest, expertise and investment," he said. "This can only improve the ways we deliver healthcare.

The event follows the visit by Mr Poots in December to the TF3 TelemonitoringNI centre in Holywood on its first anniversary, to see first-hand the fantastic support being offered to people who live with long-term conditions in Northern Ireland. 

The service, provided by TF3* in conjunction with the five Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs), is funded by the DHSSPS and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care (CCHSC), part of the Public Health Agency (PHA).  It is set to benefit up to 20,000 people over six years by enabling better control over their own health and improving care outcomes.

For further information please visit www.telemonitoringni.info

Caption -L – R:  Martina Anderson MEP; Diane Dodds MEP; Peter Robinson, First Minister of Northern Ireland; Martin McGuinness, deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland; Jim Nicholson, MEP;  Andrew McCormick, permanent secretary for the DHSSPS; Edwin Poots, Minister for Health.

*TF3 consortium, which comprises of Tunstall Healthcare, Fold Housing Association and S3 Group, was awarded the ‘end-to-end’ managed service last year, representing an investment of £18m by the Department of Health, Social Services and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care, Public Health Agency. (CCHSC)

In November this service was recognised as leading the way in innovative service development and delivery throughout the UK by winning the Telecare Services Association’s Crystal Awards.

RTE, Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster, has featured the TF3 Telemonitoring NI service on its daytime programme, ‘Morning Edition’. RTE’s Business Editor, David Murphy, visited Telemonitoring NI’s stand at the European Parliament’s Connected Health exhibition in Brussels, to find out more about how telehealth is helping people monitor their health at home. Tunstall’s Rachel Wilkinson gave David a demonstration of how Tunstall’s telehealth systems work.

Eddie Ritson, spokesperson from Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency said:

Our whole approach in Northern Ireland is about trying to care for people at home in communities, rather than them having to go to see their GP or use their hospital services.”

You can find the feature, which is at 1:28:00, on RTE’s Morning Edition here

Our Customer Satisfaction Centre will remain open during the Christmas and New Year period for faults & repairs, and can be contacted on 08444 152 415.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year from all at Tunstall.

Leicestershire County Council has invested in a countywide telecare service from Tunstall, mainstreaming its delivery of assistive living technology to integrate fully with existing reablement services and provide additional support to people with health and care needs.

Leicestershire has a higher proportion of older adults than the national average, with 36% of the population aged 50 years and over, and its population of over 85s is set to double by 2025. An ageing population results in increasing numbers of people with dementia, rising from 8,115 in 2011 to 12,728 by 2025 in the county, and older people are also at greater risk of falling. The demographic shift has also meant a significant increase in the number of people living with long-term conditions such as CHD, Stroke and COPD.

The council wanted a solution that could help support people in their own home, facilitating early intervention and reducing unnecessary hospital admissions and dependence on residential care. In order to achieve these objectives, the council developed a personalisation agenda to ensure each resident has control over their individual budgets, allowing them to spend money in a way that meets their specific care needs.

Leicestershire County Council is dedicated to improving independent living for its residents, supporting more people in the home by providing personalised, flexible care. In doing so, they are enabling significant cost savings by reducing hospital and residential care home admissions, and in turn contributing to the council’s efficiency targets and addressing issues across council-led services.

Over the next twelve months, the council plans to support a significant number of people by using telecare, with funding from NHS transfer funding for Social Care.

David Stanton, Assistive Technology Project Manager from Leicestershire County Council said:

Telecare can make real improvements in the way people with health and care needs are supported, helping them and their carers to feel safe, confident and in control of their day-to-day lives. For us, it is about putting people in control of their own conditions by allowing them to choose how and when they receive support based on personal preference.

Our Assistive Living Technology service is making a valuable contribution to meeting the care needs of Leicestershire’s ageing population by facilitating prevention, early intervention and reablement and our partnership with Tunstall reaffirms the council’s commitment to helping people maintain their independence for as long as possible.

Tunstall was chosen following a procurement exercise, and is supplying a telecare service to Leicestershire County Council that includes a monitoring and emergency response provision. They are also working alongside the council’s dedicated Assistive Technology team, who will be responsible for carrying out the assessments and installations to deliver person centred and evidence-based results.

As part of the new service, the council has extended its provision of the ‘Just Checking’ system to support people with dementia who are undergoing a period of reablement from the Homecare Assessment and Reablement Teams. This has allowed Leicestershire to obtain more accurate information and take action to remove or reduce the risks to enable safe, independent living.

For one elderly resident who lives alone, and was frequently found wandering out of her house, the telecare monitoring service has enabled carers to personalise her care plan and reduce her night wandering by approximately 90%.

Alison Williams, Head of Managed Services at Tunstall said:

Leicestershire’s commitment to community-based support and early intervention directly reflects Tunstall’s ethos of a more preventative, community-based model of care that meets the growing demands of an ageing population. By expanding the provision of integrated telecare, staff are better able to assist more residents living with health and care needs, improving their quality of life and delivering proactive support around the clock. We are proud to help deliver Leicestershire’s vision of a system that provides support and care in a place that is tailored to the individual.

Mr Edwin Poots, Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), visited the TF3 TelemonitoringNI centre in Holywood on its first anniversary, to see first-hand the fantastic support being offered to over 1,250 people who live with long-term conditions in Northern Ireland. 

The Minister learnt more about the clinical triage service launched a year ago, which is delivered by nurses who monitor readings such as blood pressure and weight on a daily basis. This remote management allows patients who would otherwise have to travel to their GP or hospital to be monitored in their own homes.

The service, provided by TF3* in conjunction with the five Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs), is funded by the DHSSPS and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care, (CCHSC) part of the Public Health Agency (PHA) and set to benefit up to 20,000 people over six years by enabling better control over their own health and improving care outcomes.

Health Minister, Edwin Poots, said:

Telemonitoring NI continues to grow and expand. To date, over 1,000 patients benefit from the programme and our aim is to have 20,000 patients enrolled by 2018. The programme can help to give thousands of people greater control over managing their condition. For many, mobility is problematic, so having the facility to monitor their vital signs at home brings its advantages.

I was pleased to learn that Telemonitoring NI achieved considerable success at the recent prestigious Telecare Services Association Crystal Awards, winning both the innovation award and the overall award in telehealth. This is an outstanding achievement, which shows that Northern Ireland is very much at the forefront in this area of healthcare technology and service change and I would like to congratulate all involved in helping to gain this recognition. It is a fitting milestone in the first year of our telemonitoring service, and we all look forward to its continued success and growth in the years to come.

COPD patient Mr Howard who was one of the first people to receive the service says it is a godsend.

It is so convenient and reliable. I haven't had to go into hospital with a chest infection for over a year. The stats are closely monitored and any change - a nurse will call to me. It's reliable and means I'm not running up and down to the GP.

In November this service was recognised as leading the way in innovative service development and delivery throughout the UK by winning the Telecare Services Association’s Crystal Awards.

Kevin McSorley, Service Delivery Director at TF3, says:

I am delighted to welcome the Minister to see telemonitoring in action. This month marks the end of the first twelve months of operation, a year in which we have supported over 1,250 patients and we are delighted that the telehealth and telecare services will effectively become enabling services mainstreamed through the policy direction set in Transforming Your Care. Although technology enabled, the service is all about people – patients and clients at home, supported by trained staff who provide care and support.  We are delighted at the visit today to meet our nursing team who deliver this new model of care which is leading the way throughout the UK.

Dr Eddie Rooney, Chief Executive of the PHA said:

Telemonitoring is an excellent example of how modern technology can help deliver a better service for the patient. This allows them to take control and manage their condition with the confidence of knowing that their vital signs are still being monitored by a healthcare professional. It also allows more efficient use of the healthcare professional’s time and skills. Today’s visit proved to be a great success allowing us to demonstrate to the Health Minister how far the service has come in its first year.

The service has an ambitious programme for development and next year plans to accelerate the uptake of telehealth into broader clinical conditions and expand into telecare.

For further information please log onto www.telemonitoringni.info

That was the message from Stormont's Health Minister, Edwin Poots, who told the Assembly that local patients and the economy can only stand to benefit from the opportunities created by research and development.

Over the past 12 months, the Department of Health alongside the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) have attempted to push ahead with their shared agenda for Connected Health and Prosperity.

By working together, both departments are attempting to improve standards of health care while at the same time create jobs.

TelemonitoringNI allows patients who would otherwise have to travel to their GP or hospital to be monitored in their own homes.

Michael Howard, who suffers from several chronic health conditions, employs the service daily.

From the comfort of his home he can record the various statistics which indicate whether he needs to change his medication or indeed seek professional help.

Using an electronic device, he takes his own vital signs, including blood pressure and oxygen levels.

These are sent to a central office where results are monitored by nurses using computers and a telephone system.

Mr Howard says it is a godsend.

It is so convenient and reliable. I haven't had to go into hospital with a chest infection for over two years. The stats are closely monitored and any change - a nurse will call to me. It's reliable and means I'm not running up and down to the GP.

Telemonitoring is being rolled out to thousands of patients across Northern Ireland.

While the nursing team is employed by the NHS, it is a private consortium that runs the practice.

The Public Health Agency's Eddie Ritson says it doesn't cut out the personal interaction between patient and nurse.

Mr Ritson said:

Telemonitoring isn't about replacing people with technology. It is about providing information which people can use and their carers can use as well. That will enable to live more healthy lives at home for longer and reduce the unplanned use of GP and hospital services

Undoubtedly technology can revolutionise health care but it requires funding and lots of it to really make a difference.

Speaking to the Assembly, Health Minister, Edwin Poots, said the local NHS must be prepared to take that leap of faith.

Mr Poots said:

Research is the cornerstone of reform and innovation, it is the catalyst for improvement. As we move forward with Transforming Your Care, investments such as this will be crucial to reform of our health and social care system

While technological innovation sounds good on paper - in practice what does it actually mean?

At Randox Laboratories in County Antrim, scientists are working on early diagnoses for conditions including respiratory conditions.

This can alter patient pathways, improve their health outcomes and reduce health service costs.

Presently, more than 70% of clinical decisions are based on diagnostic results - so according to Mark Campbell, a senior manager at Randox, better diagnostics can greatly enhance the majority of clinical decision making.

Mr Campbell said:

For example, coming in to the winter time, when many people will suffer from coughs and splutters, we can now analyse those coughs and splutters more effectively, detect the right treatment and treat effectively.

This reduces the risk to the patient and cost to the health care service

The UK's death rate for instance from respiratory disease is almost double the European average and the sixth highest in Europe.

With the growing and ageing population, according to the minister there is a need for a radical and strategic approach to managing the health service.

He told the Assembly that Connected Health and Innovation have key roles to play in meeting these challenges.

To read the full article click here.

Source: BBC News Northern Ireland

Tunstall will be demonstrating its patient portal, mylife, which enables users to view secure information relating to their condition with the click of a button. The easy-to use portal allows users to access vital signs readings online, enabling them to view trends over time, check progress against set targets and get hints and tips from clinicians about their condition. The mylife portal offers a secure solution for providers to develop an integrated care plan around the patient, putting them at the heart of the telehealth service.

Tunstall will also be on hand at the event to demonstrate its latest telehealthcare delivery model, Tunstall LifeCare^TM. LifeCareputs people at the heart of a holistic model of care by taking into account individual health and care needs, accelerating strategic outcomes and delivering operational benefits. It also aims to improve the user experience and create a foundation for the growing number of people who need support, enabling the scaling up of telehealthcare in areas where services are not widespread or embedded.

On the second day of the event, Clinical Support Consultant at Tunstall, Helen Rollings, will be giving a presentation on the main stage to discuss how telehealth has become an integral part of care pathways across health communities, using good practice for example from NHS Gloucestershire. Her presentation will also examine the potential barriers for large-scale implementation, and offer practical tips and advice for clinicians.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute will also be discussing recent findings from its latest GGI audit of telehealthcare services, which revealed that one fifth of councils said they had received no reablement funding in 2011/12, despite a national grant from the Department of Health.

The Audit follows a number of Board Assurance Prompts (BAPs) from the GGI, which consider telehealth deployment and the wider issue of managing long-term conditions. The BAPs provide a framework to guide senior managers and board members, enabling them to meet the necessary governance, quality and safety requirements and facilitate effective care at home.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan said:

We believe that telehealth has the potential to deliver real breakthroughs in service delivery, transforming care pathways by empowering patients. In order to deliver this level of personalised care and support to patients, good governance and pathway redesigns are essential.

We have developed a number of Board Assurance Prompts to highlight the challenges that currently exist in the healthcare sector, and provide detailed recommendations to guide healthcare commissioners, providers and policy makers to ensure that those managing telehealth services address critical issues in order to make improvements in healthcare.

Tunstall LifeCare is a fully managed service that aims to redesign care pathways, taking into account individual health and care needs and putting people at the heart of a holistic model of care. It not only provides a fast track to achieving strategic outcomes and delivering operational benefits, but also improves the user experience and creates a foundation for the growing number of people in need of support. LifeCare^TMalso supports the scaling up of telehealthcare, where services are not widespread or embedded.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director at Tunstall said:

Tunstall LifeCare is about delivering an integrated service that moves the focus away from the equipment and promotes a mainstreamed service that builds care around the needs of the user, bridging the gap between health and social care. The service enables providers to integrate telehealthcare across multiple service pathways, delivering a more effective model of care.

The Tunstall LifeCare programme works in partnership with Health Intelligence, a leading provider of population-based information analytic and reporting solutions for health organisations in the UK. Health Intelligence will also be sharing the stand with Tunstall to exhibit its latest risk stratification tool. A proven risk stratification process is vital for delivering effective telehealthcare, identifying the most appropriate patients for the service, accelerating benefits to service users and maximising care provision and ROI for the provider.

During Day 1 of the conference Tunstall will also host a workshop on the implementation of telehealth at scale (3:20pm – 4:20pm, in the Branksome Suite). Helen Rollings, Clinical Support Consultant at Tunstall Healthcare, will discuss how Telehealth is now becoming embedded within care provision across health communities. Featuring examples from NHS Gloucestershire, NHS North Yorkshire and NHS York, the presentation will examine the potential barriers of large-scale implementation, offering practical tips and advice for clinicians.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute will also be highlighting findings and recommendations from a recent GGI audit of telehealthcare services in England. Findings from the audit revealed that only £28 million of the additional £648 million allocated to local authorities to fund home care support, and telecare in social care services, went towards funding telecare.

The Audit follows a number of previous Board Assurance Prompts (BAPs) from the GGI, which address telehealth deployment and the wider issue of managing long-term conditions. The BAPs offer a framework to aid senior managers and board members to meet the fundamental governance, quality and safety requirements that are necessary to facilitate effective care at home.

Commenting on the findings of the audit and the importance of governance, Andrew Corbett-Nolan said:

Telehealth has the potential to deliver a real breakthrough in service delivery, revolutionising care pathways by empowering patients, reducing dependence on hospital based services and promoting continuity of care. However, in order to deliver personalised care and support to patients with long-term conditions, good governance and pathway redesigns are essential.

Our Board Assurance Prompts highlight the challenges that currently exist in the healthcare sector and include detailed recommendations to guide healthcare commissioners, providers and policy makers to ensure that those deploying telehealth services address critical issues in order to make improvements in healthcare.

Tunstall Healthcare Ltd is a lead partner in an innovative telehealthcare project implemented in Andalusia, Spain, which integrates social care information with calls to emergency services to provide a more efficient response to people requiring help in a crisis. This service, already available for the whole telecare user base in Andalusia (176,605 users connected) improves the quality and efficiency of the response in case of emergency, as well as an optimization of resources in both the social and health services. The improvement in the service quality has an impact on the person’s health condition and reduces their anxiety during a health emergency.

The project has been part of the EU CommonWell initiative which aimed to promote better quality and more economically efficient solutions for the provision of health and social services. Twelve partners from five European countries have participated in the project which utilise both telehealth and telecare technology.

The objective of the Andalusia Telecare Service, integrated in the Agency for Social Services and Dependency (ASSDA), part of the Andalucian Ministry for Health and Social wellbeing, is responsible for the support of independent living and granting care and safety to dependent people. This service, one of the most important telecare services in Europe, contributes to improve end people’s quality of life.  

Where protocol dictates, Telecare personnel in the Andalucía Telecare Service contact the emergency health service provider (the Public Company for Health Emergencies or EPES), which is responsible for responding to emergency calls from users in Andalusia, providing 24/7 support to its eight million inhabitants.

The CommonWell project provides Andalucía Telecare Service users with a high quality service by integrating the information from both emergency and social care services into one common platform. Integration includes voice and data transfer, enabling faster response in emergency situations. The new system enables Telecare personnel in the Andalucía Telecare Service to seamlessly transfer the call to EPES whilst they forward the caller details, providing reassurance, and once the call is closed down the system will automatically update the caller’s social records with details of the event.

Steve Sadler, Group Chief Technology Officer at Tunstall Healthcare Group said:

For the first time we have a working system that links emergency calls and a caller’s social care history. This new system means both the emergency services and social care have live, relevant information about their patients and can therefore offer a more efficient and effective service.”

People using the telecare service are provided with a Tunstall Lifeline home unit and pendant, which allow them to raise a call for help simply by pressing the button on either the unit or on the pendant. These calls will be received at the ASSDA monitoring centre where trained operators ensure the service user receives appropriate and swift assistance.

The pilot ran from January 2011 to February 2012, and the evaluation process showed good results and high user satisfaction. To perform the evaluation, response times and resources were analysed, and questionnaires were answered by 500 end users and ASSDA’s staff. These are some of the results:

• Users declared that the new system made them feel less anxious during the emergency.
• 84% of ASSDA’s staff said the change impacted positively in their job.
• The majority of ASSDA’s staff also declared that the new system decreased their workload and increased job satisfaction
• 91% of staff identified benefits of the new system for users
• Analysis of times and calls showed a reduction in the average time per call, both in EPES and ASSDA, as well as in the number of calls needed per case.

Overall, the CommonWell system implemented showed a reduction in costs, due to the reduction of number of calls and average duration per costs, as well as an increase in user’s safety and reduction in anxiety in a health emergency.

Representatives from TF3 and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care (CCHSC) were honoured and delighted to receive two Crystal Awards at the Telecare Services Association’s (TSA) annual ceremony, held in Birmingham on 13^th November. Not only did the consortium win in the Innovative Product or Service Development category, it was also pronounced Overall Winner.

The Crystal Awards were created by the TSA in order to recognise ‘the very best in telecare and telehealth’, and the Innovative Product or Service Development category required entrants to demonstrate how innovation and creative use of technology has made a real difference to service users and commissioners.

The TF3 consortium comprises Tunstall Healthcare, Fold Housing Association and S3 Group. In March 2011 TF3 was selected through a process led by the CCHSC part of the Public Health Agency (PHA) to provide a nationwide remote telemonitoring service to the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care System. The procurement of this large scale, ‘end-to-end’, managed service is already supporting in excess of 1,200 active users.

Edwin Poots, Health Minister for Northern Ireland, said:

I would like to congratulate TF3 and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care on being awarded the TSA Crystal Awards.  I know that those involved in this project have shown outstanding commitment, dedication and innovation and these awards are well deserved. 

The ethos behind Telemonitoring strikes at the very heart of the current reform of health and social care services in Northern Ireland. The Transforming Your Care review, which is currently out for consultation, aims to bring care closer to the patient’s home, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and, where appropriate, get hospital patients back to their homes faster.  Telemonitoring will help us to do all of these things. We must utilise all that technology has to offer us and continue to achieve better outcomes for patients.

Dr Eddie Rooney, Chief executive, PHA said:

Telemonitoring is an excellent example of how modern technology can help deliver a better service for the patient and also allow more efficient use of the healthcare professional’s time and skills. We are delighted to receive these awards and I would like to thank all the members of the team who work so hard to help patients gain more control over their health and improve their quality of life.

Jim O’Donoghue Vice President Telehealth at S3 Group commented:

The telemonitoring service has worked so well due to the commitment of the partnership between TF3, CCHSC and the five Health and Social Care Trusts to always put the patient at the centre of what we do, leading to improved health and care outcomes. It’s fantastic to receive such endorsement from a respected industry body, and provides further evidence that large-scale telemonitoring services will form a major part of the future for health services in the UK.

For further information on telemonitoring in Northern Ireland please visit www.telemonitoringni.info

The Minster said:

Technology can help people manage their condition at home, free up a lot of time and save the NHS money. In a world where technology increasingly helps us manage our social and professional lives, it seems logical that it should also help people manage their health.

This announcement coincided with the launch of the NHS Mandate “A mandate from the Government to the NHS Commissioning Board April 2013 to March 2015” on Tuesday which sets out the ambitions for the health service. It states that by March 2015 “significant progress will be made towards 3 million people being able to benefit from telehealth and telecare by 2017; supporting them to manage and monitor their condition at home and reducing the need for avoidable visits to their GP practice and hospital.”

As a member of 3millionlives, Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, has been working with industry colleagues and the Department of Health to make it easier to deploy telehealth and telecare at scale. This includes a range of initiatives such as developing service and standards definition documents, evolving revenue based commercial models and making strides to raise awareness across all stakeholders.

Simon Arnold, UK Managing Director of Tunstall Healthcare says:

These announcements are a very welcome step in the right direction. Whilst the Mandate doesn’t contain specific targets, it does contain measures to innovate the NHS in order to be more responsive to patient’s needs.

The Government’s commitment to 3millionlives is absolute, but we also require a major shift in thinking from the clinical community - industry has a key role to play in helping make the doctor’s life easier whether by system integration or care pathway redesign or via patient engagement and evidence of outcomes.

As a global provider, we are proud that we have enabled many thousands of people to be supported to live the life they want to live, and look forward to working with industry colleagues and professionals to enable even more people’s lives to be transformed by telehealthcare over the coming year.

iVi (pronounced ivy) is Tunstall’s new intelligent pendant, which features integrated fall detection.  The lightweight, compact personal device is the only product of its kind to have a ‘not-worn’* alert, which raises an alarm at the monitoring centre if it hasn’t sensed movement for a defined time period. The pendant has several wearing options and can be adjusted to suit individual needs, with three variable sensitivity levels available. It also features both a button to raise an alarm, and an additional button to cancel any potential alerts that were triggered unnecessarily.

The iVi intelligent pendant is compatible with Tunstall’s range of Lifeline home units, and other Tunstall telecare-enabled systems such as Communicall and CareAssist. According to Age UK, approximately one-in-three people over the age of 65 suffer a fall each year, costing the NHS an estimated £4.6m a day. The pendant, which has been developed with extensive input and insight from Tunstall customers, is designed with the user at the heart of the solution, offering tailored services to meet individual needs. It is ideal for people prone to falling, individuals who have recently been discharged from hospital, people who work alone and those with medical conditions such as diabetes or epilepsy.

Tunstall will also be previewing its next-generation monitoring centre software, PNC7, which provides a powerful, scalable technology platform that is easier for operators to use, more flexible and more efficient. PNC7, which is designed to support an efficient monitoring centre service, enables all calls to be delivered seamlessly to the desktop regardless of the source, with the interface only enabling options and actions according to the calling equipment.

PNC7’s Operator Assistance function provides an onscreen guide for operators to follow set procedures according to the type of customer, reducing the need to refer to manuals and thus reducing the risk of errors. Case Management also allows operators to keep on-going incidents active while continuing with their call handling responsibilities, enabling different calls to be collated to follow an incident from initiation to completion.

Visit Tunstall at stand 31-34 to find out more about their latest telecare solutions.

*patent pending

A new report from Housing Learning Improvement Network (LIN), which focuses on the role of assisted living technology in social housing for vulnerable adults, was launched this week at the CIH Eastern Conference and Exhibition. The report follows two previous Board Assurance Prompts (BAPs), which examine the application of assisted living technologies in general needs and specialised housing for older people.

The report, entitled ‘Supporting Vulnerable Adults:  the application of assistive living technology to support independence’, describes how technology can help support vulnerable people such as those with mental health issues, learning disabilities, those recovering from alcohol or substance misuse, and people fleeing domestic violence.

With over five million people aged between 18-64 years living with a mental health issue, assisted living technology offers senior managers and board members a range of solutions to enhance their services, mitigate risks and strengthen the ability to provide flexible and relevant support.

The latest BAP, which has been developed by Housing LIN in partnership with Nigel Appleton of Contact Consulting and the GGI (Good Governance Institute), aims to advise leaders and decision-makers within housing organisations on the application of assisted living technology, using five key assurance questions to ensure they take full advantage of the opportunities presented by technologies such as telecare and telehealth.

Jeremy Porteus, Director of Housing LIN said:

Housing is recognised as a key factor in creating pathways in which people who may feel vulnerable can feel safe and secure. Many people, who might have been supported in long-term institutional settings in the past, are now being supported within the community.

Whether it is creating a social network or managing a long-term condition, assisted living technology can enhance and support services that organisations are able to offer, strengthening relationships between the housing provider and relevant health and social care organisations. Drawing on examples of best practice, this BAP offers guidance to support the development and implementation of assisted living technology systems.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute said:

Assisted living technology provides support in areas that could otherwise undermine confidence and reduce the capacity for independent living. By using the Board Assurance Prompt, housing providers can identify benefits to health and social care partners, and demonstrate results in delayed admissions to hospital and residential care.

The report is supported by an educational grant from Tunstall, and together with two further Board Assurance Prompts, is available by clicking here.

Tunstall AMAC almost managed to go unscathed by Sandy. The office had already been closed prior to the storm hitting whilst the Oceanside office (the original headquarters for AMAC) was literally hit by a 5 foot wave which devastated the first floor of the building. Luckily the second floor which served as a base of operations was not damaged, yet the office was closed soon after the storm and employees were transferred to the Long Island City, New York headquarters.

Thanks to the determination and commitment of Tunstall AMAC’s ‘Hurricane Heroes’, services remained live throughout. Potentially devastating and extremely challenging, it was the strength of character of the Tunstall AMAC team that withstood the storm.

Those who went above and beyond the call of duty are too many to mention and span the Operations, Hospital Solutions, ERC/PNC ERC, Customer Service and IT teams. Of particular note however are the efforts of:

• Andrew Luu (LIC, Network Administrator), who was onsite for 24 hours and offered to pick up operators left without transport if required.
• John Vaughn (Director of Operations of Hospital Solutions), who left his home and stayed in a nearby hotel. When lines went down in the middle of the night on Monday, he walked from the hotel (since no cabs were operating) in order to get to the LIC facility to get operations up and running for clients.
• Jason Lubruno was at his station in a remote monitoring post for a 24 hour shift.
• And Khurram  Kalimullahour (Supervisor at PNC ERC), who was unable to staff his group of 8 because people could not make the trek to the office.  He stayed for 3 shifts in a row.

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, will be highlighting the importance of mainstreamed telehealthcare with tailored service user support at this year’s National Children & Adult Services Conference 2012. While at the event, Tunstall will be showcasing its new service delivery model, Tunstall LifeCare^TM.

Tunstall LifeCare helps to create a holistic model of care, in which a person is offered support that takes into account all of their health and care needs within a single pathway. This not only delivers operational and financial efficiencies, but also simultaneously improves the user experience, as well as creating a foundation for the growing number of people requiring support.

LifeCare has been specifically developed to support the scaling of telehealthcare in authorities where services are not widespread or embedded. Two recent reports have shown that, despite the clear advantages of telehealth and telecare, take-up of the technology is fragmented, and awareness and access amongst carers in the UK is still poor.

A report carried out by Carers UK found that carers are still facing significant barriers when accessing telehealthcare services. The report, which was based on a survey of over 4,200 carers, found that 62% of them were unaware of the technology available, with almost a third commenting that they had never been offered it by their local authority. According to the research, 61% of carers using the services said that telecare/telehealth had given them peace of mind.

Another recent telecare audit carried out by the Good Governance Institute (GGI) also found significant variations in the number of local authorities delivering telecare services, and the number of people within authorities currently being supported by telecare across England.  

The audit, Care and support at home: an audit of telecare services in England, found that, despite 1.5 million people currently using telecare across England, responses from the 121 councils that took part in the audit only accounted for a fraction of this figure. The report also found that, of the additional £648 million allocated to fund home care support, only £28 million went towards funding telecare services.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director at Tunstall said:

Tunstall LifeCare is about delivering an integrated service that moves the focus away from the equipment and promotes a mainstreamed service that builds care around the needs of the user, bridging the gap between health and social care. The service enables providers to integrate telehealthcare across various service lines, delivering a more effective model of care.

Tunstall has been working in partnership with some of the UK’s largest local authorities as part of a continuing effort to mainstream telehealthcare on a national scale. Earlier this year, Tunstall partnered with Birmingham City Council to deliver a large-scale, city-wide telecare service, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK and is due to benefit up to 25,000 people over the next three years.

TelemonitoringNI is the largest telemonitoring service in the UK and Northern Ireland. The service, provided by TF3 in conjunction with the five Health and Social Care Trusts, is transforming the care of 1000 people with long-term conditions, and is set to benefit up to 20,000 people over six years by enabling better control over their own health and improving care outcomes.

With the fastest growing population in the UK, the prevalence of long-term conditions in Northern Ireland - such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes - is expected to increase by 30%. According to the Northern Ireland Executive, a 4% increase in demand for services by 2015 would mean an additional 23,000 hospital admissions, 48,000 outpatient appointments and 40,000 999 ambulance responses.

TF3 consortium, which comprises of Tunstall Healthcare, Fold Housing Association and S3 Group, was awarded the ‘end-to-end’ managed service last year, representing an investment of £18m by the Department of Health, Social Services and the Centre for Connected Health and Social Care, Public Health Agency. (CCHSC)

The telemonitoring service, which allows patients to take their readings at home and automatically send information directly to the health care provider via a telephone link, marks an important step in the modernisation of the Northern Ireland health and social care delivery system. The service aims to improve outcomes for patients with earlier intervention, prevent deterioration of their condition and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

Marie Farren, wife and carer of Michael who suffers from Diabetes, said:

Everything just fell into place once telemonitoring was fitted; Michael hasn’t had a hospital admission or infection since. We really appreciate the support, especially as I am the primary carer for Michael and sometimes you feel as though you’re the only one doing it, but with the support of the service I have been able to better care for Michael and he is much happier, which feels great.

Eddie Ritson, Programme Director of CCHSC, PHA, said:

The roll-out of Telemonitoring NI represents a significant step towards providing quality care for the growing number of people with chronic illnesses who want to live at home while having their conditions safely managed.

A patient will take vital sign measurements at home, usually on a daily basis, and these are automatically transmitted to the Tf3 system, where they may be monitored by the triage team. If the patient’s readings cause concern, a nurse will contact them by phone and if necessary the patient’s clinician will be alerted to enable them to take appropriate action.

Telemonitoring is an excellent example of how modern technology can help deliver a better service for the patient and also allow more efficient use of the healthcare professional’s time and skills.

Kevin McSorley, Service Delivery Director at TF3, says:

The telemonitoring service has worked so well due to the commitment of the partnership between TF3, CCHSH and the Trusts to always put the patient at the centre of what we do, leading to improved quality of care outcomes. Telemonitoring is a tool to enable trusts to deliver their Strategic Implementation Plans for ‘Transforming Your Care’ objectives. We’re already transforming the care of 1000 patients, and we expect to achieve 400,000 monitored patient days this year, equating to around 2,200 patients.

The TF3 Consortium has established a unique clinical triage service staffed by nurses that connects all five Health and Social Care Trust professionals in a safe and simple manner. The ability to carry out an online referral, which is automatically populated through the health and care number system via the ICP infrastructure, is incredibly powerful, connecting patients with professionals and the potential to reduce the number of hospital admissions.

The benefits of telehealth were recently detailed in a British Medical Journal peer reviewed paper*.  The paper found that “Emergency admissions were reduced by 20% and mortality rates were reduced by 45% as a result of telehealth.”

For further information please log onto www.telemonitoringni.info

Tunstall Healthcare, the world’s leading supplier of telehealthcare solutions, has announced today that it has achieved ISO/IEC 27001 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS), making it one of only just over 1,000 organisations in the UK to hold the accreditation.

ISO/IEC 27001 is the only auditable international standard which defines the requirements for ISMS, with certification achieved exclusively by companies that demonstrate the highest competency in the effective management and security of information.

The standard shows Tunstall takes appropriate preventative measures to protect customers’ data, and demonstrates to customers and prospects that the business has a secure infrastructure in place, and employs a robust risk management process.

The accreditation is especially valuable as it validates Tunstall systems and procedures for identifying and mitigating risks to protection of patient identifiable data (PID) and software used in support of clinical operations that are delivered by Tunstall Response in support of its telehealth customers. The new award will complement Tunstall’s compliance to ISO/IEC 20000:2011 service management system standard, for best practice delivery of managed telehealth services.

Tunstall underwent a three-stage external audit process to prove its compliance, with auditors seeking evidence to confirm that the management system identifies, manages and minimises a range of threats to business information.

Simon Arnold, UK & Ireland Managing Director said:

The achievement of ISO/IEC 27001 demonstrates to customers our continued dedication to ensuring our products and services meet the highest criteria and means they can have complete confidence that our approach to information security and management is robust and effective. This latest accreditation clearly shows how driving quality forward for customers is a key part of our strategy and illustrates our commitment to continuously raising standards in telehealthcare.

The accreditation is the latest addition to Tunstall’s impressive portfolio of industry and international certifications, which include ISO 9001:2008 International Standard for Quality Management Systems, ISO 14001 Environmental Standard as well as CE Marking and numerous British Standards relating to its telecare products.This achievement confirms the company’s continued drive towards excellence, leading the market in adopting best business practices and international quality standards.

A new report from Housing LIN has been published today, focusing on the role of assisted living technology within general needs housing. The report is the second in a series of Board Assurance Prompts (BAPs) aimed at leaders and decision makers that are responsible for the management of general housing schemes.

The report, entitled ‘Older people living in general housing: The application of assisted living technology to support independence’ looks at the role of technology to support independence within general social housing for older people. It has been developed in partnership with Nigel Appleton of Contact Consulting and the GGI (Good Governance Institute).

It is vital for Senior Managers and Board Members to establish a strategic approach to cater for the needs of their tenants, offering robust and flexible systems to ensure that choice is sustained. With approximately 40% of all general needs housing tenants over 65, some of which living in the same home for many years, housing providers have a duty of care to ensure the home is safe and appropriate for their needs.

The aim of the BAP is to encourage decision makers to take full advantage of the opportunities that technologies such as telecare and telehealth have to offer. It demonstrates the proven benefits of assisted living technology within a general housing setting, providing reassurance to service users and their carers, whilst also mitigating risks and enabling cost savings for providers.

Jeremy Porteus, Director of Housing LIN said:

In general housing, an up to date system of technology offers flexible, unobtrusive and cost effective support to respond to the needs of residents, carers and management alike. Yet the uptake of assistive technology in general needs housing has been relatively slow. This paper sets out seven key assurance questions that Board Members and Senior Officers might ask of their organisation, taking into account resident demographics and the strategies in place to accommodate assistive living technology.

The paper sets out to demonstrate how the technology can support the role of housing in health and social care, promoting intervention and prevention and reducing unnecessary admissions to hospital and sheltered accommodation. For tenants and their families, it is about addressing concerns over safety and security, ensuring they can remain living independently for as long as possible. For the provider, assisted living technology can contribute to the sustainability of the organisation by enabling them to generate cost savings.

The BAP also includes a Maturity Matrix to support the implementation of assistive living technology, from a basic level to exemplary, using technology to enhance support and improve care delivery at home.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute said:

For both tenants and management organisations, the flexibility of assisted living technology – the ability to adapt it as needs change over time – provides reassurance for those who choose to live independently. By using the Board Assurance Prompt, housing providers can identify benefits to health and social care partners, demonstrating an improvement in quality of care and the provision of timely care interventions.”

Supported by an educational grant from Tunstall, the BAP includes examples of good practice and other key facts, demonstrating the positive impact assistive living technology has had on care services across the UK.

The report is available from www.tunstall.com/resources/evidence

• One fifth of councils said they had received no re-ablement funding in 2011/12, despite a national grant from the Department of Health
• Only £28 million of the additional £648 million allocated to fund home care support went towards funding telecare services
• 43% of PCTs saw no investment in telecare from the additional £648 million allocated, particularly in the South West and East Anglia

A telecare audit carried out by the Good Governance Institute (GGI) has found significant variations in the number of local authorities delivering telecare services, and the number of people within authorities currently being supported by telecare across England.

The audit, Care and support at home: an audit of telecare services in England, was compiled from Freedom of Information Act requests and completed by 121 upper-tier and unitary local authorities in England.  It found that, despite 1.5 million people currently using telecare in England, responses from the councils only accounted for a fraction of this figure.

According to the audit, only £28 million of the additional £648 million allocated to local authorities to fund more capacity for home care support, investment in equipment, adaptations and telecare in social care services**, went towards funding telecare.  43% of PCTs saw no investment in telecare services for their area, particularly in the South West and East Anglia. The audit also revealed that one in five councils reported receiving no re-ablement funding from their local primary care organisation in 2011/12.

The findings from the audit also supported existing evidence that telecare can achieve real cost savings for commissioners of social care through preventing or delaying the need for intensive care packages, referring to Wakefield Council’s reported net savings of £1.3m over a six-month period. Despite this, only one third of the local authorities actually carried out an assessment into the savings delivered by telecare

Although 80% of local authorities confirmed they had eligibility criteria or assessment processes in place for telecare services, these were found to be inconsistent across the country. Some councils, such as Leicestershire County Council and Walsall Council, confirmed that they had chosen to make telecare universally available, with nearly half of the local authorities that responded saying they had undertaken an assessment of the outcomes delivered by their telecare services.

Dr John Bullivant, Chairman of the Good Governance Institute said:

Adult social care services in England are facing unsustainable pressures. An aging population coupled with fiscal constraints means that new ways of funding and commissioning social care need to be explored and initiated, including the use of telecare services. Despite the Government’s commitment to increase the uptake of telecare and telehealth, access to these services varies greatly across the country.

One of the key drivers for this variation is the fact that there are differences in assessment between local authority commissioners, combined with a lack of guidance around telecare implementation and incentives for its introduction. Our audit also found mixed understanding among local authorities commissioners on what telecare services are, and how they should be incorporated into the council’s social services.

The GGI has published a report providing a number of recommendations aimed at Government and local authority officials about how telecare services and user outcomes can be improved.  The report is available from: http://www.good-governance.org.uk/Product%20Menus/audit-of-telecare-services-in-england.htm

** 2011/12 NHS Operating Framework, published by the Department of Health:  http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_122736.pdf

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telehealth and telecare in the UK, has partnered with risk stratification provider Health Intelligence to enhance and support the delivery of its fully managed telehealthcare service, Tunstall LifeCare.

A proven risk stratification process is vital for delivering an effective telehealthcare service as it identifies the most appropriate patients for the service, accelerating benefits to service users and maximising care provision and ROI for the provider. The Tunstall LifeCare programme works in partnership with Health Intelligence, a leading provider of population-based information analytics and reporting solutions for health organisations in the UK, assisting the NHS to improve diagnosis, promote prevention and deliver cost savings.

Tunstall and Health Intelligence’s ‘case finding’ module gives local commissioners a robust, secure and rapidly deployable solution. Patients within the population who are suitable for telehealth are identified and may be ranked in terms of their likelihood of hospital admission and hospital cost.  The solution also allows commissioners, to scenario plan, prioritise those patients in greatest need, manage demand and supports GP Practices to block refer appropriate patients.

This unique approach to risk stratification offers a solution that covers all areas of the QIPP long-term conditions work stream, incorporating key areas such as statistical modelling, threshold modelling, block referrals, clinical review, service evaluation and care planning.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director at Tunstall said:

We understand that telehealth is not suitable for everyone, which is why it is important that each patient is carefully selected based on specific criteria and thresholds, such as those patients with COPD, Heart Failure or diabetes with one or more emergency admissions in the last 12 months. Our partnership with Health Intelligence helps us to proactively help clinicians in identifying the patients who will benefit most from telehealth in terms of managing their condition and helping them to live more independently.

Phil Kirby, Managing Director at Health Intelligence Ltd said:

In order to deliver maximum value, Health Intelligence partnered with Tunstall to speed up the use of telehealth services through our information analytics service, case finding, reducing the time needed to identify and refer patients to just a few weeks and to make patient referrals much easier for clinicians. This is an exciting partnership that links Health Intelligence’s population based information and service delivery methodology with Tunstall’s services to benefit patients, clients and commissioners.

Tunstall LifeCare is a fully managed service, providing telehealthcare at scale for the first time. It provides a fast track to achieve strategic outcomes, delivering operational benefits for commissioners, service providers and users alike. It follows a rigorous and proven process, working collaboratively with relevant stakeholders to couple wide-scale delivery with tailored service user support.

NHS Gloucestershire has reported on the success of its telehealth service following a 12-month evaluation, which found that 88% of patients receiving telehealth in Gloucestershire would recommend the service to their friends and families, whilst another 85% rated the service as either excellent or good. 

The survey was extended to patients across 80 GP practices and asked patients a series of questions regarding the impact of telehealth on the management of their condition. Of the 143 respondents who completed the questionnaire, 76% of users felt telehealth gave them peace of mind and reduced anxiety about their condition, whilst 65% said it helped them better manage their conditions and overall health and wellbeing.

NHS Gloucestershire partnered with Tunstall in 2011 to establish a fully managed telehealth service for 2,000 patients over a three-year period. The service, which is proving to be one of the largest and most successful GP referring programmes in the UK, has resulted in a majority of the GP practices in NHS Gloucestershire actively referring patients, with over 420 people already benefiting from telehealth.

Linda Prosser, Commissioning Director for NHS Gloucestershire, said:

Telehealth complements a range of services that NHS Gloucestershire provides to help people with long term conditions. It is playing a key role in empowering patients, helping them to understand and manage their condition whilst also reducing consultations, emergency call-outs and referrals to hospital. Both clinicians and patients are benefiting from the service, and it has the potential to help many more people in the future.

Dr Will Haynes, GP and CCG member, said:

The beauty of telehealth is that it enables us to identify a potential deterioration of a patient’s condition remotely. It helps patients to understand their own condition a lot better and allows the care system to be more proactive. Telehealth enables us to pick up on issues at an earlier stage, allowing the patient to get on with things they want to do.

Gordon Rawlings, a patient with Heart Failure said:

Telehealth is great; it really helps with understanding your health. I find it very comforting- it’s like having your own nurse at home taking your readings, keeping a check on you. It even saved my life when it detected I was having a silent heart attack, I wouldn’t have known until it was too late.

Gloucestershire is now opening telehealth up to a broader range of people to incorporate patients with other complex conditions such as neurological conditions, anxiety and learning disabilities.

Tunstall Healthcare, the Yorkshire-based world leading provider of telehealth and telecare, has launched its next-generation telecare solution, Lifeline Vi.  The new solution builds on the success of Tunstall’s market-leading Lifeline range – which has sold over two million units globally in the last five years – and enables providers to support a wide range of care requirements in their local communities.

A Yorkshire family is the first in the world to benefit from the new Lifeline Vi.  The first unit has been delivered to Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) and installed in the home of WDH Care Link customer, Anthony Weaver, to provide essential support for him and his family. 

Lifeline Vi enables personalised care and risk management for older people and those with long-term needs, allowing them to live independently at home for as long as possible. Developed with extensive input and insight from Tunstall customers including many of the UK’s leading local authorities and housing associations, it reflects the demand for an advanced, flexible yet easy-to-use telecare solution.

With its comprehensive range of sensors, Lifeline Vi monitors home environments unobtrusively for any events or emergencies.  If a problem is detected, the unit raises a local audible alarm, and communicates with a 24-hour monitoring centre so that the appropriate response can be quickly taken.

Martyn Durant, Service Director for WDH, collected the first Lifeline Vi from the production line at Tunstall’s Whitley Bridge factory.  He said: 

We’ve worked in partnership with Tunstall to develop the Lifeline Vi for our Care Link customers and I’m delighted that they will be the first people to benefit from the new product. Lifeline Vi’s new functions will help support the needs of our customers even further, helping them and their carers to feel safe, confident and in control of their day-to-day lives. The new innovative technology will also help us to work better with our partners in health and social care to modernise the way services are provided

Anthony Weaver, 35, has had the first Lifeline Vi installed in his home.  A shrapnel injury he received while serving in the armed forces means that Anthony has some mobility issues and suffers seizures.  He has been using a Tunstall Lifeline and personal alarm pendant for the past two years, so he is able to raise an alert if his family are not in the house. 

He said: 

telecare has changed my whole family’s life not just mine, my kids have a better understanding of my illness and my wife has been able to return to full time work. It’s given me and my family real peace of mind, knowing that there’s always support on hand if ever I have any problems.  I’m really pleased to be the first in the world to have a Lifeline Vi installed, it’s new design and features make it even easier to use than before.

Chris Claydon-Butler, General Manager – Assisted Living and Service of Tunstall said: 

Lifeline Vi embodies all of Tunstall’s 50-plus years of innovation and experience in developing solutions that help people to live more independent, fulfilling lives.  This company started in Yorkshire and has its headquarters and manufacturing base here, so it’s fitting that the first of our next generation solutions is benefiting a Yorkshire family. 

The Lifeline Vi’s advanced design and features were informed by listening and responding to our customers’ insights and feedback.  The solution has been realised through a tremendous collaborative effort by all our staff, and investment in specialised new production facilities.  I believe it will prove to be even more successful worldwide than its predecessor.

Lifeline Vi has an integral ambient temperature sensor with configurable high and low range settings, to help ensure that a comfortable, safe temperature is maintained in a person’s home.  The unit also features a built-in ‘reminder’ facility, which prompts the user about key information, such as the correct time to take medication, through automatic messages.  Users can tailor each message and catalogue them as daily, weekly or monthly reminders.

The unit’s enhanced Virtual Sensor functionality – a Tunstall market first –enables a proactive, intelligent response to any alerts raised by telecare sensors in the home.  For example, if a person gets out of bed in the middle of the night and doesn’t return in a pre-set time interval, the unit can interrogate other sensors in the property to establish if the person is simply making a hot drink, or if they have fallen and need urgent help. 

The unit also includes a range of advanced features to ensure the safety of users, and to reduce maintenance and running costs for service providers.

For full details of the Lifeline Vi, click here.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has published a new guide booklet showing how assistive technology can be harnessed effectively by housing organisations, improving their services to residents and building partnerships with care and health bodies.

The booklet entitled ‘How to… make effective use of assistive technology in housing’, is sponsored by leading telecare and telehealth provider Tunstall and was previewed at the CIH Housing 2012 annual conference and exhibition in August.  It gives housing organisations an introduction to telecare and telehealth, shows how they can make best use of the technology, and the implications for housing organisations of deploying and using assistive technology.

Dominic Gunn-Peim, Director of Health and Wellbeing for the Chartered Institute of Housing said: 

The contribution of telecare and telehealth in enabling people to achieve successful hospital discharge, manage health conditions and live at home for as long as possible, is becoming more widely recognised.  Housing providers have a key role to play in ensuring that the technology is provided to those who need it, and that staff are fully trained in their use.

Our ‘How to’ guide explains the issues and provides examples of the application of assistive technology in practice, along with useful tips for organisations on implementation. It aims to assist housing practitioners in engaging with their colleagues in health and social care, to make the best use of the available technology and support people to live independently at home.

According to CIH, the role of housing providers in managing, providing and supporting assistive technology is not always well understood by health and social care partner agencies. The new guide will help housing professionals to achieve better joint working in more effective commissioning, delivery and monitoring of assistive technology.

The guide also includes case studies of telecare and telehealth in action, such as Birmingham City Council, where Tunstall’s telecare technology is being used to improve the care and quality of life of people with long-term conditions and social care needs, by enabling them to remain living at home for longer.

Birmingham’s 3-year programme, which will bring assistive technology to 25,000 people, will help to maximise independence for service users, preventing or reducing the need for admissions to residential care.  People are referred through 3 routes:  assessment and support planning, enablement through the adults and communities team, and prevention through GPs, voluntary and community organisations and self-referral through the internet.

Chris Claydon-Butler, general manager, Assisted Living and Service at Tunstall said:

Assistive technology provides vital support and independence to residents living with a range of care needs, and delivers significant cost savings.  We are proud to be working with the CIH to deliver preventative technologies that enable person-centric services, and improve housing organisations’ services to their residents.”

Click here to view the new How to… make effective use of assistive technology in housing guide.

Our summary understanding of the issue is that network components responsible for the digital coding and decoding of voice band signals have been the subject of changes. Such changes or upgrades may arise for example where telecommunications providers seek to optimise the performance and handle increasing data traffic on their networks. The relevant aspect of the most recent changes is that they have the effect of intercepting DTMF signalling tones previously carried wholly in the audible ‘voice band’, and regenerating these tones ‘out of band’. The normal behaviour of a typical social alarm transmission is shown in figure 1. Here, audible DTMF tones are switched on and off, usually with 80millisecond time periods, to enable exchange of information between the alarm unit and the alarm receiving centre (ARC). These are the audible waveforms that can be recorded at either end of the alarm communication link and analysed.

Traditional ‘circuit-switched’ telephone networks (analogue and digital) have provided high reliability for such signalling methods for many years. However, networks now incorporate “next-generation” components which employ ‘packet-switching’ (IP packets), and can exhibit different behaviour. The most recent network changes have resulted in a more intrusive characteristic. Here, alarm units have continued to create the DTMF sequence as shown in figure 1, but what is received at the ARC shows the markedly changed pattern of figure 2. The interpretation of this waveform is that the network components are detecting the DTMF tones being sent after approximately 50msec. Then, rather than allowing continued transmission in their traditional form, they are interrupted and re-generated by the network. The net result is that the ARC receives a lengthened and somewhat distorted set of DTMF tones. It is apparent that the overall cycle of a tone and its associated ‘gap’ is retained at 160msec. For the ARC receiving these DTMF transmissions this has the effect of reducing the gap between tones to 20-30msecs. The ARC equipment is evidently unable to process this distorted signalling pattern reliably and can result in failed receipt of alarms.

In terms of equipment affected, we have observed this behaviour across multiple suppliers and types of ARC and end-user equipment that use standard DTMF signalling formats, and across multiple protocol types, including BS8521 and TT92.

This effect has not been observed at all on STMF protocols. This latter point is not surprising, since STMF was originally designed to avoid similar interception and corruption of DTMF signalling that can be caused by analogue-to-digital (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone adapters in the home.

We are continuing to work with network providers, and we have already seen benefits where network changes have been ‘rolled-back’ to alleviate the problems encountered in recent days. However, the interconnections between networks from different providers, along with the reported variabilities by geography are proving to be complex, and technology and service providers therefore need to remain vigilant. We are continuing to support service providers on a case by case basis, initially to assist with resolutions to network issues, and where necessary to provide workarounds within the alarm systems. It is therefore recommended that service providers follow best practice through: regular test calls; raising any issues immediately with their telecommunications providers; reporting the issues to the relevant alarm system providers. We will continue to work with NICC and network providers to provide a more sustainable environment for DTMF signalling.

Meanwhile we are recommending that wherever possible our alarm systems are configured to communicate using STMF-signalling, to provide added resilience in the presence of the failure mode described above.

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telehealth and telecare solutions, has announced its successful partnership working with consortia as part of the Delivery of Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale (dallas) programme.

The dallas programme, a threeyear project jointly funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), the National Institute for Health Research and the Scottish Government, aims to highlight how new technologies and innovative services could help support independent living for older people and those living with long-term conditions and improve their quality of life.

As part of the programme, four successful consortia have been awarded £25 million of government funding, with an additional £12 million added through their own financial contributions. The overall project is expected to involve nearly 170,000 people across the UK by the summer of 2015.

Steve Sadler, Chief Technology Officer for Tunstall said:

Being part of such an important initiative, designed to unlock the potential for innovation and wellness through new approaches to health and social care, is exciting for everyone involved and poses a challenge for providers of assisted living services and products. We’re looking forward to helping develop enhanced solutions which focus on people’s independence, benefit the target population and drive innovation for a wider community of assisted living providers.

As part of the successful bid, Tunstall is delivering ‘The Feel Good Factory’ in partnership with Liverpool Primary Care Trust (LPCT), Liverpool Community Health (LCH), social housing provider Riverside, Liverpool based charity PSS, Hft a national charity supporting people with learning disabilities and technology partners Philips and Informatics Merseyside. The Feel Good Factory aims to integrate Life Enhancing Technologies (LETs) services and support through discreet assistive technology and clinical support. This initiative emphasises the need for a reduction in hospital admissions and length of stay through the provision of intergenerational programmes and targeted activity for major chronic and mental health issues. It also aims to provide an integrated service that offers tailored support to ensure an individual’s home is equipped to support hospital discharge.

Tunstall is also a partner on the ‘i-Focus’ initiative led by Advanced Digital Institute Ltd alongside The Alloy, British Gas, FAST, The Future Well, Healthcare Gateway, HDTI, Microsoft and Tynetec. The initiative aims to improve health and wellbeing, encourage independence and enable a flourishing market for Assisted Living services, making the most of the market’s high growth potential, integrating communities whilst maintaining each unique quality to allow anyone, anywhere in the UK, to access assisted living services and products.

In addition to these projects, the dallas programme also includes two further initiatives; ‘Year Zero’ and ‘Living It Up’. ‘Year Zero’ is an online application aimed at empowering individuals to actively manage their own health across all ages, providing a digital Red Book to help new parents record their child’s health, a Family Health Tree to help track family’s genealogy and a social networking and planning tool to help connect family, friends, carers and health professionals.

Living It Up focuses on developing innovative solutions that enable people in communities across Scotland to live happy, healthy and safe lives by giving them more choice and better control over their health and wellbeing. With the Hidden Talents element, people are also encouraged to identify their talents and share them with other members of the community.

Tunstall offers a range of solutions from technology to fully managed services that aim to redesign the provision of care for older people and those with long-term health and care needs, drawing focus away from the equipment and putting the user at the heart of an integrated service that will maximise their quality of life and independence.

During his visit he used one of Tunstall’s systems to check his own blood pressure, heart rate and temperature. It was the same type of equipment that is being supplied to patients who have a medical condition that needs monitoring, and by having the equipment at home patients can do their own tests, saving them the inconvenience of visiting a hospital or health centre. Any change can then be detected earlier and medical staff can decide on treatment before the condition develops further.

Mr Adams was shown the latest evidence from the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD), the Department of Health’s large-scale telehealthcare project, and Tunstall’s role within the 3millionlives initiative, which was launched by Care Service Minister Paul Burstow earlier this year. The objectives of this project are to improve healthcare by detecting possible problems earlier and thus reducing the number of emergency admissions for conditions such as heart attacks.

Mr Adams commented:

It has been a couple of years since my last visit to Tunstall and the developments in telehealthcare in that time have been considerable. I’m delighted that the government is backing this important industry, and that one of the world’s leading exponents is head quartered in my constituency.

Mr Adams was updated on some of Tunstall’s latest customer successes, including their work in partnership with Birmingham City Council, which is believed to be the first large-scale, city-wide telecare service of its kind in the UK.

Mr Adams’s visit included demonstrations of Tunstall’s latest innovative solutions, including the multi-user myclinictelehealth system and Tunstall’s mylife patient portal, both of which encourage self-management and enhance the quality of life and clinical outcomes for people with long-term conditions.

UK & Ireland Managing Director Simon Arnold commented:

Tunstall was delighted to host this visit by Mr Adams, which provided an opportunity for us to show how telehealthcare plays a key role in driving efficiencies in the NHS, saving lives and transforming health and social care provision.

The TSA have recently provided a statement regarding the above which is attached for your reference. Tunstall has also been made aware directly that some Customers are experiencing connection issues between outstation equipment and central monitoring equipment communicating over certain telecommunications networks. In some cases this can have the effect of preventing alarm calls being received and handled correctly. From our initial investigations and contact with the telecommunication providers it is apparent that the issue lies within the networks and can impact equipment from multiple providers across the telecare and security dialler industries. The immediate recommendation is that you should of course perform regular checks that dispersed and grouped systems are connecting with monitoring centres, to ensure that alarm calls are operating reliably.

In addition to the advice provided by the TSA, if you are experiencing communication difficulties in your area, this should be reported directly to your telecommunications provider in the first instance to ensure that they are aware of the situation. We continue to investigate these issues and will provide updates and more details very shortly..

Yours faithfully

Simon Arnold
Managing Director UK & Ireland

Statement issued by TSA 03.08.12:

Dear Member

We are aware of a current problem with some signals that are being experienced on a very large number of phone lines in the UK network. This is affecting at least 20% of all signals reported, seemingly regardless of geographical territory, regardless of whether the network is ISDN or PSTN and regardless of receiver type. This problem began at around 13:00 on 30th July, and is still continuing.

Monitoring platform providers are already aware of the issues and are assisting TSA and the telephony providers in identifying the fault with a view to resolution.

This is now being dealt with as a high level escalation in BT.  The escalation has been copied to MD BT Operate, Head of Service at Openreach, MD Operations at BTW and various others and involved those directly concerned into the early hours of this morning.

As far as TSA know it has not been resolved yet (9am Friday 3 Aug).

There are potential lessons to be learnt from this to improve telecommunications services to TSA members so please ensure that you report equipment failures by email during this outage to TSA. We will forward these to the telephony providers to give us and them a measure of the extent of the issue and its impact on you.

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and NHS Blackburn have developed a mainstream Telehealthcare service in partnership with Tunstall, enhancing the delivery of flexible, personalised care services to citizens in the area.

Last year, the council was dealt significant financial challenges after its available budget was cut by 25%, taking into account the loss of grant funding. This is at a time when the population of people living with a long-term condition in the area is expected to increase by 44% by 2026. On average, there are over 1,100 patients who have 4 or more emergency admissions to hospitals per year. In addition to this, between 2008 and 2028, the number of over 85s will increase by 43%. The Council and Health Service needed to find solutions that would help manage rising demands and ensure a high standard of care for its local citizens.

The joint service, which has been developed by the council and NHS Blackburn, has already saved the council £2.2 through reablement and telecare, exceeding its original savings target of £1.9m. It has also reduced long term residential care admissions by 18% across the borough in one year.

The number of people being supported by telehealthcare has risen from 60 to 1000 in 2 years. The council is extending the provision across the Borough to create a universally accessible service that integrates with community reablement and rapid response services, improving quality of life and maximising independence for users with long-term conditions. The new service will, over the next few years, involve the provision of over 1800 telecare packages to residents requiring social care support or help with health conditions. There will also be a roll out of Telehealth equipment, which will help people with chronic health conditions to better manage their health in their own home. This will help reduce hospital admissions and facilitate quicker hospital discharges.

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Executive Member for Adult Social Care at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council said:

Despite facing massive challenges to adult social care funding, we have been able to deliver an improved service for our residents. Mainstreaming the service has dramatically improved the quality of life for service users, and has also created real financial savings by avoiding unnecessary admissions to more costly forms of care. Our new telehealthcare service will help us remain fit for purpose over the next 4 years through and integrated service that provides a seamless experience for the user and allows us to increase the scale of delivery even further.

As a partner, Tunstall has proven that it is not only about the equipment, but about how you implement a service from the ground up and understand what needs to be done in order to change the culture of care – hearts and minds as well as process. Our decision to invest in telehealthcare jointly with NHS Blackburn underlines our ongoing commitment to delivering the best possible care services to our residents and our willingness to embrace new technologies in order to achieve this.

 For one elderly resident the telehealthcare service has enabled her to remain living safely in her own home, despite being very frail and suffering from epilepsy. She has been provided with a telecare service, which allows her to press a button when she feels a seizure is about to start or when she feels faint. She also benefits from a Fall Detector, which in the event of a fall or blackout is set off automatically. With the support of telehealthcare, she now has the quality of care that is required and has gained greater independence.

David Cockayne, Health and Social Care Director at Tunstall said:

Blackburn with Darwen’s mainstreamed telehealthcare service has delivered significant cost savings and enhanced reablement for people across the Borough. Telehealthcare provides vital support to residents with a range of care needs, and we are proud to be partnering with the Council and local NHS to deliver a flexible, preventative service that encourages independent living.

Blackburn with Darwen is the 17^th most deprived area in England and Wales, with poor housing, large scale health inequalities and low incomes. With the highest rates of admission to residential care in the North West, the council conducted an evaluation of its services using 114 telecare service users, of whom 34 received no other services, to identify the benefits of deployment of a mainstreamed telehealthcare service, compared with the anticipated care outcomes had telecare not been provided.

Dr Chris Clayton, chair of the Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group which is taking over buying responsibilities of health care from NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus, said:

We believe Telehealth care can have a vital role in patient care and as a clinician, I am pleased the Council and NHS have made a joint investment to provide an integrated service to the people of Blackburn with Darwen.

It’s still early days in terms of using this type of technology and of course we need to evaluate how effective it is in the long term. If it is as successful as we believe it will be, then the CCG would wish to make a long term investment in this area.

The council plans to extend telecare to people who sit outside of its current eligibility criteria and is currently considering how to do this given the obvious preventive benefits to a broad range of people over and above those with eligible social care needs. The new scheme will promote safe and independent living by bringing support for service users directly into their homes to improve their quality of life.

Wakefield Council has successfully delivered a large-scale telecare programme giving additional support to people with long-term conditions and their carers and helping them to remain living independently at home. Launched in 2007, the service provides telecare packages to a range of service users, including those with learning and physical disabilities, young carers and the voluntary sector.

An evaluation of cost savings from the programme, which involved over 2,600 referrals for telecare, showed substantial average savings of over £12,600 per person, per year for older people and those with learning difficulties, calculated by the prevention of service users entering residential care.  It also facilitated 12,200 hours of deferred residential admissions and supported 26% of hospital discharge referrals, helping the timely discharge of patients back home.

With several areas of deprivation impacting on the delivery of health and social care services, Wakefield conducted the three-year telecare project to demonstrate the benefits of mainstream deployment of telecare solutions.  These include preventing unnecessary hospital admissions or readmissions, and avoiding placement in full-time nursing care, by providing unobtrusive support for people in their homes.

In addition to supporting people with long-term care needs, the telecare service has been instrumental in ensuring families with young carers have the emotional and practical support they need to stay together as a unit, avoiding additional care costs and relieving some of the stresses associated with being a young carer.

Sam Pratheepan, Director of Adult Social Services at Wakefield Council said:

The service has dramatically improved the quality of life for service users, and has also created real financial savings by avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital or full-time residential care.

Furthermore, we realise that the benefits of telecare go beyond supporting those with long-term needs and also delivers vital support to carers too. Our service helps to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety on young carers, giving them a feeling of being safe and secure with the added reassurance that if they ever need help, 24-hour responders are always on hand to attend around the clock. With the telecare service, many young carers have the confidence to continue with their education and socialise with friends, with peace of mind that their loved ones are safe at home.

To help embed telecare into its care services, Wakefield introduced a fully equipped ‘Smart House’ as a training aid for staff, service users and carers. The property comprises of live telecare sensors and detectors, which enable staff to re-enact live demonstrations of the system to help with learning and orientation. All staff that are involved in working with the telecare service are trained in the installation, programming and set-up of all telecare equipment.

The council also offers support to people with learning disabilities, and has recently developed new supported living accommodation for those residents with both independent and more complex needs.  Each individual flat is equipped with a Tunstall Lifeline unit, personal alarm pedant and other pieces of equipment as appropriate to needs, and is monitored on site and remotely by Support Workers who can communicate with residents through a two-way speech system on the Lifeline unit.

For one young man, telecare has enabled him to move out of his uncomfortable living conditions and into a supported-living flat. As he suffers with a number of physical conditions including epilepsy and cystic fibrosis, he was provided with a range of telecare solutions including a bed sensor with automatic light sensor and epilepsy sensor.  With the support of telecare, he now has the quality of care that is required his wellbeing has dramatically improved and he has gained greater independence, allowing him to socialise with other residents.

The council also extends the provision of telecare to encompass respite for carers and those with long-term needs, offering short-term telecare support at home with 24-hour responders to enable carers to gain greater independence, whilst providing a more cost effective solution to traditional respite methods.

A new report from Housing LIN, focusing on the role of assisted living technology as an integral part of specialised housing, was launched this week at the National Housing Federation’s Housing Care and Support Conference and Exhibition 2012. 

The report, ‘specialised housing for older people: The application of assisted living technology to support independence’ looks at the role of technology within sheltered and supported housing schemes to assist older people. Housing LIN has developed the Board Assurance Prompt in partnership with Nigel Appleton of Contact Consulting and the GGI (Good Governance Institute),

The intended audiences for the BAP are those developing specialised housing for older people, in addition to the leaders and decision-makers within organisations that manage specialised accommodation. Specialised housing includes established forms such as sheltered, and retirement housing, and newer facilities such as Assisted Living, Extra Care Housing and Close Care.

It aims to encourage decision makers to better understand the use of telehealthcare as a means of supporting independence. It also demonstrates the proven benefits of assisted living technology for residents, increasing confidence and ensuring safety and security, whilst providing high quality and cost effective management solutions for providers.

Jeremy Porteus, Director of Housing LIN said:

We welcome the launch of this new paper which suggests six key assurance questions that Board Members and Senior Officers might ask of their organisation, taking into consideration the financial viability and potential risks that housing providers might encounter when developing accommodation for older people. At a practical level, the BAP also provides a Maturity Matrix to support the development and improvement in implementing assisted living technology from a basic level to exemplary, using technology to enhance support and care delivery at home.

The paper also demonstrates how assisted living technology supports the role of housing in health and social care, enabling integration of services to manage proactive intervention and prevention, and reduce admissions to hospital and residential care. For residents, it is about supporting independence to ensure they can stay at home for longer, improving quality of life and preventing any further intervention. For providers, it enhances their competitive edge by expanding their service offering, enabling them to win new contracts and generate savings that can be applied to other services.

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute said:

Telecare has long been supporting older people in specialised housing, providing the means by which residents can be supported with minimum intrusion. Providing a modern, fit for purpose system of technology supports independence and offers a flexible, unobtrusive and cost effective solution that responds to the needs of residents, carers and management alike.

With the Board Assurance Prompt, housing providers are able to identify benefits to their health and social care partners, demonstrating a reduction in the level of dependence on formal care and delaying or avoiding admissions to residential care and hospital.

Supported by an educational grant from Tunstall, the BAP includes case studies that demonstrate the positive impact telecare has had on care services and resident outcomes across the UK.

Click here to view the report

Hillingdon Council has reported on the success of its TeleCareLine and reablement services following an evaluation after 12 months, demonstrating cost savings of £4.7m and a 50% reduction in residential care home admissions. The service is part of the council’s efforts to reduce dependence on long-term residential care and enable people to remain living independently at home for as long as possible.

With the third highest proportion of gross expenditure in London for older people on residential and nursing care placements, Hillingdon Council wants to shift the proportion of the budget spent in these areas by focusing on home-based support, risk prevention and early intervention, and the Council has put in place a robust system and financial modelling to evaluate its success.

Hillingdon has made significant progress over the last 12 months by surpassing its target of 750 new TeleCareLine users in 2011/12, with over 1120 additional people benefiting for telecare in year one. It is expected this will rise to a total of 3000 additional people by 2015.

An evaluation of 195 service users with enhanced packages of telecare support over the last twelve months, found that in 48% of cases telecare delayed the need for further services, a further 42% resulted in a smaller homecare package and in 10% of cases a delay in residential care placements has occurred. Admissions of older people to residential placements have halved and are at their lowest level since April 2008.

The following 2 case studies are examples of the difference telecare is making to people’s lives:

The daughter of one TeleCareLine user said “TeleCareLine saved my mother’s life”.  Her mother was able to press the telecare button, whilst collapsing during a stroke, enabling prompt emergency medical attention. 

Arthur is 96 years of age and lives with his wife, Pamela.  He has vascular dementia, which has led to instances of him leaving home and finding himself confused and unable to return, putting himself at risk.  TeleCareline provided a portable motion sensor linked to a pager, which alerts his wife if Arthur tries to leave the house during the day.  The pager also tells Pamela if her husband leaves his bed at night so she can help him go to the bathroom, avoiding accidents and meaning she can now go to sleep without worrying. 

Pamela said:

I now feel rested and have more freedom around the home.  I tell all my friends about this amazing equipment and wouldn’t be without it.

Linda Sanders, Corporate Director for Social Care Health and Housing at Hillingdon Council said:

When I joined Hillingdon Council some 18 months ago, we set an ambitious target to reduce reliance on institutional care across all adult social care user groups from 51% of our budget in March 2011, to an average of 30% over the period 2011-15. We have made strong progress in year one of a four-year programme.

The success of our telecare service has been underpinned by the support of key ‘champions’ within the Council, including the Leader of the Council, and this has ensured the necessary vision and strategy to ensure strong member and officer buy-in. For us, it is about positioning telecare at the forefront of our care provision to ensure no one is admitted to residential care without being afforded the opportunity for telecare support at home. Our partnership with Tunstall marks a significant milestone into how we are improving the lives of Hillingdon residents.

 As part of its objectives, the council is seeking to provide more integrated care for its older residents, working with the health service, voluntary organisations and other local bodies to develop a personalised care service that could keep people living in their own homes for longer.Health linkages are continuing to grow, with high rates of telecare referrals coming from Hillingdon Hospital.

Hillingdon’s TeleCareLine service is part of a mainstream offer and is free to anyone over 85, or as part of a reablement package.  In the last year, the service received more than 165,000 TeleCareLine calls from around 5000 residents now using telecare. The service provides varying levels of support, ranging from the standard service package to the highest level of assistance, with full access to a range of telecare sensors, such as fall detectors and bed occupancy sensors, to address residents’ individual needs.  A 24-hour, 365 days a year responder service is a crucial new offer to support people in their homes who do not have relatives able to respond to emergency calls.

David Cockayne, Health and Social Care Director at Tunstall said:

The deployment of telecare in Hillingdon has enhanced reablement for people across the area and delivered significant cost savings. Telecare provides vital support to residents with a range of care needs, and with excellent leadership from an in-house monitoring and installation team and mobile response service, we are proud to provide a service to Hillingdon that has created a unified, preventative telecare service to encourage early intervention and support independence.

Whilst those over 85 can claim for free telecare, any Hillingdon resident can apply to use the TeleCareLine service for a small monthly cost. For more information about the service, visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk

A study of the effects of telehealth on mortality and the use of secondary care, published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)*, further confirms telehealth’s effectiveness in improving outcomes and avoiding the need for emergency hospital care for patients with long-term conditions, according to Tunstall.

The study – one of the largest ever conducted on telehealth – was led by researchers at the Nuffield Trust, and assessed the impact of telehealth on hospital use for 3,230 patients with long term conditions (diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure) over one year. 

Patients were randomly split into two groups, with 1,570 patients given telehealth solutions and taught how to monitor their condition at home, transmitting data to health care professionals;  while 1,584 control patients received traditional care. The results showed that, compared with the control group, telehealth delivered:

• a 45% reduction in mortality rate
• a 20% reduction in emergency admissions
• 15% fewer A&E visits
• 14% reduction in bed days
• 8% reduction in tariff costs 

These differences remained significant after adjusting for several factors that could have influenced the results, according to the study’s authors.  Tunstall believes the paper provides NHS commissioners and clinicians with the strongest and most credible evidence yet that telehealth enables better care for each patient’s needs, improving outcomes and reducing the need for expensive hospital-based care.

Gil Baldwin, CEO of Tunstall Healthcare said:

Many NHS and social care organisations have already commenced large-scale roll outs of telehealthcare services.  The findings from the study give further legitimacy, clinical assurance and finally the data-set to back up these innovative approaches to transforming health and social care.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director, Tunstall Healthcare said:

This paper confirms that telehealth significantly reduces deaths, helps patients to avoid the need for emergency hospital admissions, and shortens hospital stays when compared with traditional approaches to care.  This is absolutely complementary to our work with partners across the UK and provides an indisputable evidence base for clinicians and commissioners when making decisions about patient care in the future.

Tunstall’s telehealthcare solutions are being used extensively in the WSD programme, with thousands of systems deployed with WSD service users in Cornwall, Kent and Newham.  The company’s telehealth solutions enable patients to monitor their vital signs such as weight, blood pressure and oxygen levels in their own homes easily, safely and securely.  The results are accessed daily by a team of clinicians who triage the patient's health outcomes.  This aids with proactive case management, ensures timely and appropriate support to patients as well as promoting self-awareness and better management of their own long-term condition.

In addition to WSD, Tunstall has 90 telehealth programmes running in the UK, with a growing number based on a per-use cost model for each patient.  This minimises upfront costs and accelerates delivery of benefits, both to patients and the healthcare organisations. 

*  BMJ: Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3874

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telehealthcare solutions, has been named Telehealth/Telecare provider of the year 2012 for the second consecutive year at this year's HealthInvestor Awards, which were held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

The award recognises the success of Tunstall's 12-month telehealth project in partnership with NHS Halton and St Helens Division of Bridgewater Community Health Services. The project reduced unnecessary hospital admissions by 30% and enabled early discharge for people with long-term conditions, as well as revealing substantial cost savings and almost halving the average length of hospital stay for patients.

Tunstall was awarded the accolade for the second year in a row ahead of competition from other shortlisted telehealth and telecare providers including Bosch, O2 Health, Phillips, Telehealth Solutions and GE Home Healthcare.

Hosted by former athlete and television presenter, Roger Black MBE, the awards were attended by over 1,100 leading independent health sectors figures, celebrating the achievements of firms across 22 different categories. The 2012 judging panel included former health ministers Lord Ara Darzi and Lord Hutton of Furness.

David Cockayne, Tunstall's UK Director of Health & Social Care said:

We are delighted to win this award for the second year running, and to gain further recognition for the work we have done in partnership with NHS Halton and St. Helens. Telehealth has made a real difference to people's lives and delivered significant cost savings, and we're thrilled that industry authorities have recognised our work in improving quality of life for patients and carers across the UK.

Tunstall launched its new touchscreen Housing Services Portal (HSP) at this year's Chartered Institute of Housing Exhibition 2012.  This bespoke care management portal enables managers in sheltered and supported housing schemes to monitor and control various features and functions of Tunstall's Communicall Connect systems from an easy-to-use, intuitive touchscreen application running on a tablet PC.

Tunstall's Housing Services Portal connects to the Communicall Connect system via WiFi, giving activity-monitoring capability in conjunction with PIRs. The high-tech HSP presents scheme managers with an easy-to-read graphic dashboard of resident activity to ensure their well-being. This enables managers to see at a glance if they need to prioritise a resident visit. With the addition of an "I'm OK" button, residents are able to actively request a visit, allowing them to feel more in control.

In addition to its intuitive real-time reporting capabilities, the Housing Services Portal:

• Optimises care management time
• Improves operational efficiency
• Facilitates risk assessment and reassessment
• Reduces administration costs

The HSP enables managers to configure Communicall Connect speech modules and change settings such as door entry codes for individual residents, and gives access to the Communicall Connect user guide.

Tony Walker, Sales Manager at Tunstall said:

Our pioneering Housing Services Portal provides care management at your fingertips, and helps make supporting the health and wellbeing of residents both easier and less intrusive. The built-in graphical activity monitor displays activity levels in an instant, using green, amber and red to denote whether the resident is home, away, or if there has been no movement for a significant length of time. The Housing Services Portal provides an accurate insight into people's changing needs and enables staff to better manage and plan their work, saving time and money.

The Housing Services Portal works alongside Tunstall's latest Communicall Connect system, which allows staff to communicate with residents 24 hours a day through speech modules installed in both individual and communal areas.

 View the Housing Services Portal brochure
 

Wakefield Council has successfully delivered a large-scale telecare programme giving additional support to people with long-term conditions and their carers and helping them to remain living independently at home. Launched in 2007, the service provides telecare packages to a range of service users, including those with learning and physical disabilities, young carers and the voluntary sector.

An evaluation of cost savings from the programme, which involved over 2,600 referrals for telecare, showed substantial average savings of over £12,600 per person, per year for older people and those with learning difficulties, calculated by the prevention of service users entering residential care.  It also facilitated 12,200 hours of deferred residential admissions and supported 26% of hospital discharge referrals, helping the timely discharge of patients back home.

With several areas of deprivation impacting on the delivery of health and social care services, Wakefield conducted the three-year telecare project to demonstrate the benefits of mainstream deployment of telecare solutions.  These include preventing unnecessary hospital admissions or readmissions, and avoiding placement in full-time nursing care, by providing unobtrusive support for people in their homes.

In addition to supporting people with long-term care needs, the telecare service has been instrumental in ensuring families with young carers have the emotional and practical support they need to stay together as a unit, avoiding additional care costs and relieving some of the stresses associated with being a young carer.

Sam Pratheepan, Director of Adult Social Services at Wakefield Council said:

The service has dramatically improved the quality of life for service users, and has also created real financial savings by avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital or full-time residential care.

Furthermore, we realise that the benefits of telecare go beyond supporting those with long-term needs and also delivers vital support to carers too. Our service helps to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety on young carers, giving them a feeling of being safe and secure with the added reassurance that if they ever need help, 24-hour responders are always on hand to attend around the clock. With the telecare service, many young carers have the confidence to continue with their education and socialise with friends, with peace of mind that their loved ones are safe at home.

To help embed telecare into its care services, Wakefield introduced a fully equipped ‘Smart House’ as a training aid for staff, service users and carers. The property comprises of live telecare sensors and detectors, which enable staff to re-enact live demonstrations of the system to help with learning and orientation. All staff that are involved in working with the telecare service are trained in the installation, programming and set-up of all telecare equipment.

The council also offers support to people with learning disabilities, and has recently developed new supported living accommodation for those residents with both independent and more complex needs.  Each individual flat is equipped with a Tunstall Lifeline unit, personal alarm pedant and other pieces of equipment as appropriate to needs, and is monitored on site and remotely by Support Workerswho can communicate with residents through a two-way speech system on the Lifeline unit.

For one young man, telecare has enabled him to move out of his uncomfortable living conditions and into a supported-living flat. As he suffers with a number of physical conditions including epilepsy and cystic fibrosis, he was provided with a range of telecare solutions including a bed sensor with automatic light sensor and epilepsy sensor.  With the support of telecare, he now has the quality of care that is required his wellbeing has dramatically improved and he has gained greater independence, allowing him to socialise with other residents.

The council also extends the provision of telecare to encompass respite for carers and those with long-term needs, offering short-term telecare support at home with 24-hour responders to enable carers to gain greater independence, whilst providing a more cost effective solution to traditional respite methods.

Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Community Health Services (PCT) are working with leading provider Tunstall Healthcare to provide integrated telehealthcare support to local people living with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).

Results show that 79% of end users and 88% of carers experienced major benefits from taking part in the programme, and 168 hospital admissions and 85 GP visits were avoided.

Previously, telehealth and telecare systems have run independently, and service users in receipt of both services have had records on each system. Not only does this double the amount of data entry, it also means that health and social care professionals must make decisions based on incomplete information about a patient/client.

This issue has been addressed within the European Union co-funded Commonwell project initiative, which aims to overcome the communication gaps which separate health and social care service provision. Ten partners working in four member states cooperated to develop integrated service delivery in order to better support older people and those with long term conditions.

Milton Keynes Council's Telecare service working in partnership with Milton Keynes Foundation Trust Hospital and Community Nursing Service (Community Matrons and District Nurses), provided more than 100 patients with telecare and telehealth equipment in their homes. All patients were provided with a Tunstall Lifeline Connect+ home telecare unit, which allowed them to raise a call for help if they require assistance, either by pressing the button on the unit or on their personal trigger. This in turn raised an alert at a monitoring centre where trained operators were available to talk to patients 24 hours a day, and action an appropriate response. The patients also used mymedic telehealth equipment to measure their vital signs daily, and these results could also be viewed at the monitoring centre, where the relevant clinician could be notified if necessary, enabling them to take prompt action to stabilise the patient's condition and thereby avoid unplanned episodes of care, such as hospital admission.

The new project means that, for the first time, the same monitoring centre receives alerts and information from telecare and telehealth equipment, allowing both sets of data to be viewed together.

Sandra Rankin, Head of Service at Milton Keynes thinks the system has huge advantages

We are starting to join up information from different systems in order to get a more holistic view of the person and tailor the support on offer. A health and Social Care system that talk to each other enables us to give a much better response to needs. It also means the district nurses and community matrons can prioritise their workloads more easily, because they have extra information about patients from the telecare equipment. The integrated system also avoids wasted home visits as health professionals can easily see on the system if, for example, a patient has been taken into hospital.

The pilot phase of the project ran from September 2010 to August 2011, and was subject to evaluation using quality of life measures and cost savings calculations.  The results of the evaluation process, from the perspective of users, relatives and care professionals, were very positive, including:

• 79% of end users stated they experienced major benefits from the programme. These benefits included increased control/self-management, their relatives feeling reassured, fewer visits to their GP and a more active daily life.
• 88% of carers said having the system had resulted in major benefits, including being more able to help, fewer worries about the health and safety of the person they care for, and trusting that early intervention will take place if a problem arose.
• Care staff also reported that the service had a positive impact on clients, providing reassurance that their condition is being constantly monitored. They reported a reduction in exacerbations, and the number and length of hospital admissions because of prompt treatment.

In terms of cost savings, 168 hospital admissions and 85 GP visits were avoided based on 108 patients enrolled in the service. In summary, the project provides clear evidence of the benefits of integrated health and social care support underpinned by telecare and telehealth to people with long term health and care needs.

Cllr Debbie Brock, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care Health & Wellbeing at Milton Keynes Council said:

My congratulations go to all involved with the CommonWell Pilot, which has demonstrated to users of the service, their families & carers that Telehealth can provide appropriate support and greater reassurance for the management of long term conditions and confidence that help will be given when needed. This project highlights the way forward for whole system benefits for investing in preventative initiatives within the community setting.

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading global provider of telehealth and telecare solutions, has announced it has delivered 50,000 mymedic* telehealth systems internationally. This milestone highlights the company’s commitment to providing patient-orientated care and continued growth in the global market, reaffirming Tunstall’s position as a world leader in telehealth and telecare solutions.

Governments and health organisations all over the world are using innovative telehealth and telecare solutions from Tunstall to maintain high levels of healthcare provision and improve efficiencies. Tunstall is one of the main providers for Europe’s largest randomised telehealth and telecare project, the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD), aimed to improve well being for residents living in Cornwall, Kent and Newham in the UK. Initial findings from the WSD project revealed that telehealth could reduce mortality rates by 45%, hospital admissions by 20% and A&E visits by 15%.

Tunstall offers a range of solutions from technology to fully managed services that aim to redesign the provision of healthcare for older people and those with long-term health and care needs, drawing focus away from the equipment and putting the user at the heart of an integrated service that will maximise their quality of life and independence.

Tunstall has also expanded its international portfolio over the last twelve months with the acquisition of American Medical Alert Corp (AMAC), a leading provider of health monitoring and 24/7 communication services in the US, and STT Condigi, a provider of technology and services for elderly care in the Nordic region. The company plans to expand its product portfolio later this year to encourage the uptake of telehealth and telecare worldwide.

Gil Baldwin, CEO of Tunstall Healthcare said:

Celebrating the delivery of 50,000 mymedicsis a significant achievement for Tunstall, consolidating our position as the leading telehealthcare provider.  As part of the core healthcare business, we encourage organisations all over the world to mainstream telehealthcare, offering an integrated service built around the needs of the user to bridge the gap between health and social care and improve independence. This milestone represents Tunstall’s ability to work in partnership with health, housing and care organisations, to deliver a sustainable and collaborative service that benefits both patients and providers.

Over the last twelve months, we’ve also seen the company grow internationally following the completion of two global acquisitions and whilst this milestone is still some way from the 2.5million telecare systems from Tunstall in use worldwide, it reflects our growing commitment to remote health monitoring.

Tunstall has been heavily involved in several international projects across Europe, Australia and North America, as well as acting as the technology lead for the CommonWell project, which involved ten European partners in five different countries. The objective of this project was to support independent living for older people and those with long-term conditions, integrating and evaluating healthcare and social care services and significantly improving quality of life for individuals and their families.

Tunstall’s telehealth solutions enable remote monitoring that can be tailored specifically to user’s needs. The mymedicdevice is designed to help people with long-term health needs who live at home monitor their own conditions, enabling each user to carry out a health assessment at pre-set times to ensure timely intervention, whilst improving understanding of their health.

* the mymedic is part of the RTX3370 and RTX3371 family of telehealth systems

Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, will be showcasing its latest telehealthcare solutions at this year’s Scottish Telehealth and Telecare Congress 2012 event in Glasgow.  At the event, Tunstall will demonstrate its new patient portal, mylife, which allows users to access secure information relating to their condition at the click of a button.

The mylife portal gives users online access to their vital signs readings, enabling them to check progress against planned targets, view trends over time and receive hints and tips from clinicians related to their condition, improving understanding and self monitoring. The easy-to-use portal offers a secure solution for providers to build an integrated care plan around the patient, putting them at the centre of any telehealth service. 

Tunstall will also be previewing the latest version of icp triagemanager 1.4, which provides technical and clinical triage for vital signs data sent through the mymedic and myclinic devices. The icp triagemanager, which is compliant with the European Medical Devices Directive and integrates with GP systems including SystmOne and Adastra, offers a secure, scalable and flexible solution for providers, ensuring telehealth services can be integrated seamlessly with health and social care pathways.

During a lunchtime session today, Tunstall’s Policy Director for Health and Social Care, Kevin Alderson, will be hosting a workshop seminar entitled ‘Telehealthcare – how to achieve integration and scale.’ In this session, he will highlight the benefits of supporting people with long-term conditions in the community using telehealthcare, and demonstrate how financial and operational efficiencies can be achieved by redesigning care pathways, creating a truly holistic service that takes into account individual health and care needs.

As part of his seminar, Kevin will highlight evidence from recent client success stories, to demonstrate the effectiveness of telehealthcare when mainstreamed within a centralised service delivery. Tunstall has been working with Hillingdon Council to provide free telecare to residents over 85, as part of the council’s continued efforts to reduce reliance on residential care and provide preventative and flexible support. Hillingdon’s TeleCareLine service offers a range of telecare sensors to enable residents to live safely and independently, providing varying levels of support dependent on individual needs.

Tunstall also provides managed services in Northern Ireland as part of the TF3 Consortium, which aims to provide telemonitoring solutions to over 20,000 people in a bid to improve health outcomes for patients with long-term conditions. The TF3 Consortium, which comprises of Tunstall Healthcare, Fold Telecare and S3 Group, is aiming to reduce pressure on frontline services by enabling community-based care.

Kevin Alderson said:

The pressures on our health and social care systems are undeniable. It is simply unsustainable to continue to deliver services in the same way. By keeping the patient at the heart of everything we do and by working closely with our customers who are embracing change, we are delivering a series of large scale, successful telehealthcare solutions that improve patient outcomes and free up resources.

A new report published by FACE Recording & Measuring Systems, shows how deployment of telecare by English councils could achieve substantial savings for councils in the provision of social care for older people.

The report, ‘Investing to Save: Assessing the Cost-effectiveness of Telecare', details the results from a research project conducted by FACE. The results show that a widespread, targeted use of telecare could create potential savings of between £3m - £7.8m for a typical council, equating to 7.4% - 19.4% of the total older peoples' social care budget for an average council.

On average, there are 38,500 people over the age of 65 in a council serving a typical population of 250,000. These councils have an estimated social care budget of £40m, with over £14m (35%) of this spent on residential care provision. According to the report's findings, the average weekly cost of telecare provision to meet each service user's needs where recommended was £6.25, in comparison to an average weekly pre-telecare package cost of £167.

Paul Clifford, managing director of FACE said:

In addition to further confirming the savings realisable through telecare, the major benefit of this report is that it shows there is a straight forward method of moving from accurate assessment of a relatively small set of individuals to robust prediction of the impact of telecare on a larger population.  Moreover, the ability to monitor the extent to which those savings are being realised, based on routine practice, is a major leap forward.

The report recommends that councils should actively promote the provision of telecare as a ‘mainstream' activity, and should make local estimates of savings realisable through telecare.  Councils should look to include standard methods of assessment and training in the applicability of telecare within their re-ablement and personalisation processes, and introduce a regular outcomes-monitoring system to ensure that savings are realised in the most cost-efficient manner.

Peter Hay, Strategic Director for Adults and Communities at Birmingham City Council, and President of the Association Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said:

This report not only confirms that the enormous benefits of telecare are maximised by mainstreaming, it also provides a practical tool for councils to scope the potential in their individual locality. This will prove invaluable for authorities, enabling them to analyse the effectiveness of telecare in their communities, and helping them to ensure that savings are realised in the most cost-efficient manner.

The project, which was supported by an educational grant from Tunstall, involved a sample group of 50 residents who completed the FACE overview assessment process.  Of the 36 females and 14 males assessed, most of which had more than one long-term condition or disability, 33 were identified as being able to benefit from telecare (66%).

According to Tunstall, the methods developed in the FACE study provide the basis for councils to undertake local estimates of the financial savings realisable through the introduction of telecare.  The use of standard assessments and the methodology developed in the report provides the basis for a routine system of outcomes monitoring and savings projection for councils that wish to maximise savings through telecare.

Simon Arnold, Managing Director, Tunstall said:

The results show the substantial savings that are achievable through the widespread, targeted use of telecare. Telecare is about giving service users greater control of their lives and enabling them to make the choices they wish to make, and this goes hand-in-hand with the aims of both re-ablement and personalisation.

To fully realise its benefits, telecare has to become an integral part of these practices, rather than being perceived as separate initiative. The provision of telecare is a win-win solution for both councils and service users, reducing costs and improving quality of life.

FACE assessment tools are nationally accredited by the Department of Health and used throughout the UK and Ireland by NHS, social care and independent sector organisations. Over 50% of councils in England use FACE assessments for community care assessment and the FACE RAS provides indicative budgets to over 20% of the population served by English councils.

The FACE report is available from www.face.eu.com, together with a range of supporting material for councils including a telecare audit; an assessment tool to release the benefits of telecare; FACE telecare tools; and a monitoring system for evaluating telecare programme benefits.

Read the FACE report

Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services, has reaffirmed the government's commitment to mainstreaming telehealth and telecare services, to help ensure a better quality of care and greater independence for people with long-term conditions.

During his keynote speech at the International Congress of Telehealth and Telecare run by The King's Fund, Mr Burstow stated that an integrated care approach using telehealth and telecare solutions could save the NHS up to £1.2bn over five years, improving the lives of 3 million people by increasing independence and reducing time spent in hospital. He pointed out that currently, 7 out of 10 in-patient beds are occupied by people with long-term conditions, with approximately 70p of every NHS pound being spent looking after them.

Mr Burstow referenced the work Tunstall is doing in partnership with NHS Gloucestershire, removing up-front costs of telehealthcare to help mainstream the service in the county.  Tunstall is working with NHS Gloucestershire to implement a large-scale telehealth programme to support patients with long-term conditions, providing a managed system of care and response to improve patient outcomes and reduce emergency hospital admissions.

Paul Burstow MP said:

Few people buy an iPhone for cash up-front, they pay for it through a monthly contract. So why couldn't a community nursing provider pay for a remote blood pressure monitor in a similar way? We're already seeing exactly this in places like Gloucestershire, where the PCT is working with Tunstall, one of the largest telecare and telehealth companies.

Tunstall covers the up-front costs such as clinical engagement, pathway re-design and training. They supply NHS Gloucestershire on a per-patient, per-month basis. Any cost savings the PCT makes through things such as reduced hospital admissions, can be re-invested back into frontline NHS services. It's a win-win-win situation; NHS Gloucestershire avoids the need for large up-front costs, the supplier builds a relationship with a customer it would otherwise not have had and the patient gets their life back.

Linda Prosser, Locality Commissioning Director at NHS Gloucestershire said:

The provision of telehealth in Gloucestershire has helped our patients to better manage their own conditions, alleviating the pressure on our health and social care services. To know that NHS Gloucestershire's telehealth programme is regarded as a benchmark is a significant achievement for us, and we're proud to have the support of Mr Burstow and the Department of Health.

David Cockayne, UK Health and Social Care Director at Tunstall said:

Our work with NHS Gloucestershire and with many other organisations in the UK has shown the value of telehealth as a means of supporting independent living and improving the management of long-term conditions.  The Department of Health's support is a great endorsement for our partnership approach in developing innovative solutions to help mainstream telehealthcare services.

The Department of Health (DH) has been working with industry and medical professionals to raise awareness for the effectiveness of telehealth and telecare. The DH established the Whole System Demonstrator programme (WSD) to evaluate how the use of telehealth and telecare services can support people with long-term health and care needs to live more independently.

Key findings from the WSD programme include a 15% reduction in A&E visits, a 20% reduction in emergency admissions, a 14% reduction in elective admissions, and a 45% reduction in mortality rates.

Headquartered in Malmo, Sweden STT Condigi has businesses in Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well as a growing export division. STT Condigi has been built from its suite of software services which are provided to local authorities and providers of care in the community which allow carer optimization, mobile planning, activity reporting and mobile alarm handling.  In addition it offers a range of independent living products as well as communications systems for nursing homes.

Torbjorn Olsson (Investment Manager), of the majority shareholder of STT Condigi, the 6th AP Fund said,

We are delighted to have completed the sale of STT Condigi to the Tunstall Group. The combined business will be able to continue providing innovative products and solutions to the Nordic countries and its customer base.

The completion of the deal is a very positive move that is good for our business, employees and our customers," said Kristoffer Axelsson, Chief Executive Officer of STT Condigi.  "With the joining together of Tunstall and STT Condigi we will now be able to offer world class monitoring software and centres into which our applications will add extra services for our combined customer base.

Gil Baldwin, Chief Executive Officer of Tunstall Healthcare commented

I am delighted that we have now closed the deal and we have been able to do this in a very short time span.  We will now be able to combine STT Condigi's strong track record of growth and innovation, along with Tunstall's leading market position and ensure Tunstall Healthcare remains number one in the Nordic countries.

Castlegreen Partners served as financial adviser and Linklaters Advokatbyrå Aktiebolag served as legal adviser to Tunstall.  Danske Bank acted as exclusive financial adviser and Mannheimer Swartling Advokatbyrå Aktiebolag acted as legal adviser to the Shareholders of STT Condigi in this transaction.

Hillingdon Council is offering free Lifeline telecare packages from Tunstall to residents over the age of 85 through its TeleCareLine service, to promote safe and independent living by bringing support for service users directly into their homes.

More than 960 installations have been completed since 1 April 2011, almost doubling the number carried out in the previous year. Of these installations, more than 400 have been self-referrals from Hillingdon residents as a result of the council’s efforts to raise awareness of the telecare service at user level.

With the population of those over 85 estimated to increase by 11 per cent by 2015, the priority for Hillingdon Council is to work in partnership with NHS Hillingdon to develop a new model of care by combining telehealthcare services in the borough, to help maximise independent living in the community. The aim is to create a fundamental shift in service provision away from institutionalised care, towards home-based support, risk prevention and early intervention.

Linda Sanders, Corporate Director for Social Care, Health & Housing said:

Technology like TeleCareLine can play a vital role in helping care for an ageing population and that’s why in Hillingdon we are offering it to those aged over 85 for free. By enabling residents to stay in their own homes we can reduce the demand for residential or nursing care, which can in turn result in significant savings for the council.

Similar telecare packages are also available for all residents of the borough, and are free for the first six weeks as part of a re-ablement service and for those individuals who meet FACs[1] criteria subject to a financial assessment. 

Kevin Alderson, Health and Social Care Policy Director at Tunstall said:

Hillingdon Council’s ethos of risk prevention and early intervention directly reflects the national drive for more preventative, community-based care to meet the growing demands of an ageing population. Providing free telecare to people over 85 makes a tremendous difference in maintaining their independence and reducing risks and Tunstall are delighted to be part of it.

Hillingdon’s TeleCareLine service offers a range of telecare sensors to enable residents to live safely, securely and most importantly, independently. The service provides varying levels of support, ranging from the standard service package to the highest level of support, with full access to a range of telecare sensors to address residents’ individual needs. Each eligible resident is provided with a Lifeline Connect+ personal alarm, a MyAmie+ pendant, bogus call alarm and a smoke detector as standard, with additional sensors provided based on the residents’ individual needs.

Grace Marks, a Hillingdon resident currently using the TeleCareLine service said:

This system has given me and my family real peace of mind. I’ve always been an independent person and through Hillingdon TeleCareLine, I can stay living at home with the reassurance that, if something happened, help wouldn’t be far away.

Cabinet Member for Social Care, Health and Housing, Councillor Philip Corthorne, added:

Like most people, our older residents and those with disabilities have told us they want to be, and remain, independent. Hillingdon’s TeleCareLine service allows them to do just that, safe in the knowledge that assistance is on hand should they need it.

Hillingdon works to support its older population through social care, housing and support services. The council’s approach to supporting more people in the community  includes the development of a range of supported housing schemes to provide a broader continuum of accommodation options including extra care housing. The council also hopes to extend its telecare provision to a further 3,000 people over the next four years.

As well as those aged over 85, anyone who is a Hillingdon resident can apply to use the TeleCareLine service.  For more information about TeleCareLine visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk or call 01885 556633.

Birmingham City Council has today launched its large-scale, city-wide telecare service in partnership with Tunstall. The service, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, will benefit up to 25,000 people over the next three years and marks a significant milestone in how the city council is supporting more adults to remain in their own homes for longer, reducing the need for hands-on home care or a move into residential care.

As keynote speaker at the event, Paul Burstow MP, Minister of state for Care Services, discussed how telecare can alleviate pressure on services and family members and improve people’s quality of life whilst maximising their independence.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said:

Birmingham should be proud that it is pioneering this new approach, which is set to improve the quality of care for service users and increase their independence and dignity, as well as reducing the time they spend in hospital.

It is only by the telecare industry working together with partners such as Birmingham City Council that this will be possible. Their collaboration illustrates the kind of partnership between industry and service providers that the Three Million Lives campaign is seeking to encourage.

Birmingham City Council has invested £14million into its city-wide telecare initiative, which embodies the Department of Health’s recently announced ‘3millionlives’ approach. The approach will aim to transform the lives of three million people with long-term conditions and social care needs over the next five years, through the use of telecare and telehealth.

Staff from the Birmingham Telecare Service will be available to provide health and social care professionals with an opportunity to hear first hand experiences from Birmingham Telecare Service users, and offer an insight into how the telecare service will support older and vulnerable residents whilst maximising their independence.

Councillor Sue Anderson, cabinet member for Adults and Communities, said:

We are proud to provide services that mean vulnerable adults across the city can continue to live independently, with the additional reassurance that support is available whenever needs, 24 hours a day. Our partnership marks a significant milestone in how we are improving the lives of adults we support throughout the city and will ensure more adults can remain in their own homes, reducing the need for hands-on home care or a move into residential care.

The Birmingham Telecare Service combines a response service with a range of telecare solutions from Tunstall, including motion detectors and temperature sensors to support older people and those with long-term needs.  By extending telecare service provision to more people, the city council intends to create a systemic shift towards early intervention and preventative services, to meet growing demand for increasingly personalised care packages.

The telecare service will be delivered across chosen care pathways, which include enablement of service users, prevention services and assessment and support planning. A Birmingham Telehealthcare Delivery Centre has been set up to ensure services are available locally and developed in conjunction with the voluntary sector. In addition, an independent Citizen’s Quality Assurance Group will be established to monitor effective outcomes for users and deciding the future direction of the service. 

Tunstall UK managing director Simon Arnold said:

Our commitment to Birmingham City Council is truly innovative in terms of its partnership approach. The Mears Group, for example is supporting us in the delivery of this programme. It brings together parties from the public, private and voluntary sectors to deliver community-based services that will enhance residents’ independence and promote self management, whilst ensuring 24-hour care is available.

Alan Long, Executive Director from Mears Group who will be assessing and installing the equipment said: 

Mears are delighted to be supporting Tunstall in the delivery of this programme.  We are firm believers in the benefits of telecare and telehealth and we applaud Birmingham City Council for leading the way and making independent living for older residents a reality.

To see telecare case studies about the service, please visit  http://www.tunstallwsd.co.uk/service-users

Leading telehealth and telecare services provider, Tunstall Healthcare, is supporting a new approach that aims to transform the lives of three million people with long-term conditions or social care needs, utilising telehealth and telecare within health and social care services.

Launched today by the Minister of State for Care Services, Paul Burstow MP, 3millionlives will enable millions of people to receive the significant benefits derived from a recently completed telehealth and telecare pilot, known as the Whole Systems Demonstrator (WSD) programme. The Minister re-affirmed his commitment to working with industry to improve the lives of millions of people today by publishing a Concordat with the four trade associations representing the telehealth and telecare industry. 

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said:

This new approach is set to improve the quality of care for 3 million people, increase their independence and dignity as well as reduce the time they spend in hospital. It is only by the telehealth industry working together with the Department of Health and other stakeholders, that this will be possible. In addition, UK industry will gain a competitive edge in a marketplace where many millions of people worldwide could benefit from this technology, helping to generate income and jobs in the UK.

The WSD programme was established by the Department of Health (DH) to evaluate how the use of telehealth and telecare services can support people with long-term health and care needs to live more independently. The three-year research project aimed to create the largest evidence base for telehealth and telecare in the world. Key findings from the WSD programme include a 15% reduction in A&E visits, a 20% reduction in emergency admissions, a 14% reduction in elective admissions, and a 45% reduction in mortality rates.

Tunstall’s telehealthcare services are being used extensively in the WSD programme and is the only company with systems deployed in all 3 WSD sites Cornwall, Kent and Newham. The company’s services enable patients to monitor their vital signs in their own homes easily, safely and securely and aids proactive case management, ensuring timely and appropriate support to patients.

Gil Baldwin, Vice Chair of the 3millionlives working group and CEO of Tunstall, said:

3millionlives is a fantastic example of industry and government working alongside each other to improve the lives of individuals living with long term conditions, enhancing clinical outcomes, supporting patients and doctors and saving money for the tax payer.

‘3millionlives’ will develop appropriate ways for the market to engage with stakeholders and commission telehealthcare at scale, and increase awareness and visibility of the potential benefits of telehealth and telecare globally, generating significant opportunities for UK plc.

The 3millionlives website is now live, and anyone interested in finding out more or becoming involved can find details at www.3millionlives.co.uk

NHS Oldham and Oldham Council are working in partnership with leading healthcare company Tunstall, providing patients with advanced telehealth solutions that will support them in the management of their long-term conditions.  

The programme will involve up to 150 patients who have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), who will benefit from being supported in their own homes by Tunstall’s telehealth solutions. COPD patients have been selected initially based on national evidence showing the benefits of telehealth for patients with long-term conditions.

The mymedicsolution enables clinicians to remotely monitor vital signs including blood pressure, pulse rate, and blood oxygen levels on a daily basis. Patients will also receive a personalised monitoring plan devised by a team of clinicians to meet their individual needs. 

The new service is expected tohelp reduce the number of unplanned emergency hospital admissions, the number of visits patients need to make to GP surgeries, and the number of home visits made by clinicians.  This improves the quality of life for patients and their carers, and relieves pressure on NHS resources through early support and by helping them to better understand and manage their conditions. 

Dr Ian Wilkinson, who is a local GP and accountable officer for Oldham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, said:

We believe this new scheme is key to improving the way that long-term conditions are managed and will offer care closer to home. It means we can make sure the care that is provided is more efficient, while at the same time improving the effectiveness and the convenience of these services for our patients. This is an important opportunity for advanced technology to improve services and we are confident it will deliver improved health for patients.

This project is part of collaborative working between Oldham Council and NHS colleagues to progress local joint working around long-term conditions.   It will help develop a joined up approach to using telecare and telehealth solutions to enable people to live independently in their own homes. 

The programme will initially run in a group of GP practices in the Chadderton area, with plans to then extend the service further.

David Cockayne, Tunstall’s UK Health and Social Care Director, said:

The recent announcement of the initial results from the Department of Health’s Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) pilot shows how efficient telehealth can be in reducing mortality rates by 45%, A&E attendances by 15%, and emergency admissions by 20% for patients with LTCs.

This joint approach to telehealth is a further endorsement of the role of telehealth in transforming service delivery and delivering efficiency gains whilst improving the standard of care services available to patients. These patients will now be able to continue their lives with greater independence and with fewer constraints placed on them as a result of their condition.

It is estimated that there are over 8,000 patients with COPD in Oldham and by 2020; the total number of people living with long-term conditions is expected to rise by 13%.

A telehealth programme for people with COPD was introduced by NHS Tameside & Glossop in early 2011.  A patient enrolled on the Tunstall telehealth pilot said:

I think it is brilliant. It gives you peace of mind and you can keep a check on it yourself.  You don’t have to panic and don’t have to contact the Advanced Practitioner or the GP if it’s not necessary because I feel more in control.

Read more about the background to the trial, the preliminary results and find out more about telehealthcare in action.