We've started a new Facebook Group which you can join here.
By joining this group, you will be kept up to date with the latest news, information on meetings and events, and become part of the CMS community.
The new consultation is open and is available from the homepage.
We're trying to establish how a Conservative government can help the NHS. We want to know problems you've spotted in your practice, and where we can help. We need a better a NHS- and we want to find out from you how to do it!
The Bow Group has published a new Green Paper on the use of telecare- it's available here.
The key findings:
> Telecare offers a proven “win-win” for the health and social care system by helping sick, disabled and older people remain at home for longer by supporting them 24/7 with alarms, alerts, health monitoring and communication.
> The time for the universal, mainstreamed approach to telecare is now.
> Telecare consists of a base unit and wireless sensors that link to a 24 hour response centre that monitor risks associated with, for example, falls, fire, dementia, poor health, gas leaks and security issues.
You can see a YouTube video from Argyll on the application of telecare here.
At the Healthcare Innovation Expo earlier this year, I saw some of these devices laid out in a mock home- there can be little doubt that there's enormous potential in this area. What really struck me (as a junior doctor with relatively limited exposure to the primary care environment) is the scope for innovation within primary care which perhaps isn't as well covered by the media as robotic surgery or the more glitzy end of radiology!
In a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (10.1056/NEJMp0906618) entitled "British Lessons on Health Care Reform", David Kerr and Mairi Scott refer to the strength of NHS primary care, and the role of the family doctor (GP) in considering patients as whole people, and controlling costs. In sharp contrast to the United States where uptake of information technology (IT) in primary care has been slow (albeit reinvigorated by the ARRA Act 2009) the UK has for some time had IT within primary care- our culture and bare-bone infrastructure is already there- which is why the NHS should lead on this.
From first-hand experience, I know that the elderly and vulnerable patients admitted on the "general medical intake" suffer disproportionately because early signs are not acted upon- mainly because their GP simply can't be everywhere. This sort of technology at relatively low cost can provide those early observations which can trigger early review and intervention. And for those in health economics: early intervention reduces costs both in the short term and long term.
For healthcare there's both a moral and economic imperative. For the nation: we have unparalleled invention and innovation, and we have staff and infrastructure which can accommodate this change. So let's act.
RjP
