Telecare deal for 500 packages in Cumbria

Five hundred homes across Cumbria are to receive telecare packages following a contract award to suppliers, Tunstall,  by the local county council.

The move follows a successful pilot scheme earlier this year and will be funded using some of the £860,000 Preventative Technology Grant (PTG), allocated to the council by the Department of Health.

Cumbria County Council says that the new telecare packages will “effectively manage risk, support well-being and promote independence for older and vulnerable people.”

The council’s strategic development officer, Peter Woodhouse, told E-Health Insider: “Telecare provides great outcomes for patients who need assistance, but want independence. It provides a range of risk management services, and helps to allow patients to stay in their own homes for longer, giving them an alternative.

“It also provides valuable relief for family and friends who may be unable to cope with the pressures of home caring, and avoids the need to have to send a patient to a nursing home. It gives them peace of mind by delaying the point of pressure – providing support and choice to both the carers and the patient.”

The council hopes that the telecare packages will help them to cater for the needs of the elderly and vulnerable people in the region and enable early supported discharge from hospital, which is part of their Virtual Care Village Model.

Woodhouse said: “As Cumbria is so large, we created the Virtual Care Village Model, to give people in remote locations access to the same resources as those in urban areas. We are now well on track to achieve the development of a fully integrated mainstream telecare service, and this model is being used to demonstrate to other authorities how to best achieve this.”

The telecare initiative was launched in August and packages have been installed in 60 homes so far, with full roll-out scheduled to take place over the next 18 months.

“People can choose telecare now, but you have to understand it and be informed about the packages. Importantly, you need to know how to trust it. We are working with patients to get them to become more connected to the devices and we will be starting an advertising campaign in the New Year to increase referrals,” Woodhouse said.

He added that Cumbria has been piloting telecare since 2004 and has been getting good feedback from families, carers and patients, but due to budgetary constraints the council has been unable to invest. Now with the PTG, it is eager to push out the technology.

“Initially we ran pilots supporting 30 patients with dementia, and this worked well. Family carers loved it because they benefited greatly from it and the evaluations we received from them were extremely positive.

“We then extended a greater run of pilots across a range of older and vulnerable patients and these went equally well. Without the PTG, we couldn’t run a referral scheme like this and we hope it can help families who have to care for patients who need assistance with their day to day lives.”

The telecare packages consist of a Tunstall Lifeline unit which provides a link to a 24-hour response centre if help is required, and a range of intelligent telecare sensors raise an automatic alarm if falls, intruders or environmental extremes such as fire flood or gas are detected.

Tunstall’s public sector policy director, Kevin Alderson, said: “Telecare will play a key role in driving future innovations in health and social care, helping to move more care services into the community and into people’s homes – Cumbria has taken a leading role in mainstreaming telecare services, and other councils look set to follow suit.

“This is a great opportunity for everyone in Cumbria, with telecare packages offering a cost effective alternative to traditional residential care and helping to reduce some of the burden on healthcare providers, hospitals and residential care homes, while also giving users the help and support then need and enabling them to remain independent for longer.”