Findings from a two-year pilot study run by Kent County Council and two of the county's health trusts showed more than £7 million could be saved annually if Telehealth technology was installed in the homes of every eligible patient.
This includes people with diabetes, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - one of the biggest killers in the UK.
The technology was piloted in 250 homes in West Kent, and Eastern and Coastal Kent between 2005 and 2007.
It allowed patients to record vital information, such as blood pressure or sugar levels, from home, which was then sent directly to a nurse or GP to monitor.
Patients said it gave them more independence and cut the number of trips to the hospital or doctor. It is now being rolled out as part of Kent's regular healthcare programme.
Oliver Mills, KCC's managing director for adult social services, said the financial implications were huge.
"The evidence we have in Kent is that this has massive implications across the whole of the UK," he said. "I hope very much people will take this up because this is the best way of supporting people with long-term conditions to live independently and at the same time it is the best use of public money."
Cllr Graham Gibbens, cabinet member for adult social services, said giving people the resources to manage their own conditions takes pressure off medical staff and patients.
"That means peace of mind, better quality of life for the Telehealth user, which in turn eases the burden on their carer or family," he said. "We must never underestimate the challenges we are going to face providing services for increasing numbers of the elderly and people with long-term conditions. Telehealth helps us meet those challenges in a cost-effective and well-managed way."
Dartford GP Dr David Lawrence, who saw first hand the benefits of the scheme, said it was "striking" how much it helped the patients using it. He said it allowed them to understand their own illness.
"The professionals can also see what's going on and it can focus what you do on the people who need it most at that time," he said. "They do suddenly feel less alone with their condition and, from the doctors' point of view, they know much more about what's going on and that becomes mutually confidence building."
The Telehealth report showed how thousands of people across the UK could have their lives changed by being given more control of their health, with massive benefits to the taxpayer. It would also come at a crucial time, with KCC needing to make £200m of savings over the next three years.
Dr Robert Stewart, medical director and director of clinical commissioning at NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent, believes there is even more that can be done with Telehealth.
"I think we could expand it to measure other parameters as well, so even specialised conditions that would normally require you to be in specialist units could be monitored, allowing people to be cared for in their own home," he said.
"There would be no reason why, through Telehealth, results couldn't be fed back much more often to those specialists.
"This would mean they had real-time information, allowing a proactive approach based on understanding what a person's need is now, not when they happen to come to an outpatient appointment in three months' time."
People taking part in the pilot said it had enormous benefits, giving them more control. One patient, Haris Patel, said it had changed his life.
"By catching something wrong with your health earlier they can actually do something about it instead of waiting three or four months for a consultant to see you, in which time you could have deteriorated or ended up as a hospital inpatient," he said.
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Quelle/Source: Kent News, 10.10.2010
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