North West telehealth pilot saves £2.2m
Technology to be rolled out after trial slashes residential care admissions by 18%
A telehealth service launched as a result of budget cuts in the North West of England has saved the local authority more than £2.2m over the past year.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and NHS Blackburn developed the service in partnership with supplier, Tunstall, after the local authority’s budget was cut by 25%. This came at a time when the number of people living with a long-term condition in the area was on the increase.
The joint service, which has been developed by the council and NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus, has already saved the council £2.2m, exceeding its original savings target of £1.9m. It has also reduced long-term residential care admissions by 18% across the borough in the past year.
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
The number of people being supported by telehealth technology has risen from 60 to 1,000 since the introduction of mainstreamed services two years ago, and the council is now extending the provision across the borough to create a service that integrates with community re-ablement and rapid response services. The new service will, over the next few years, involve the provision of more than 1,800 telehealthcare packages to residents requiring social care support or help with health conditions.
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 four years through an integrated service that provides a seamless experience for the user and allows us to increase the scale of delivery even further.”
He added: “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 automatically sets off an alarm.
David Cockayne, health and social care director at Tunstall, said: “Blackburn with Darwen’s mainstreamed telehealthcare service has delivered significant cost savings and enhanced re-ablement 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.”
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, but 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
Blackburn with Darwen is the 17th 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, chaimanr of the Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is taking over buying responsibilities of health care from NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus, said: "We believe telehealth 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, but 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.”