Telecare Will Be Key to Addressing Care and Funding Issues for Older People Highlighted in King’s Fu

Telecare solutions proven to deliver enhanced care for patients and cost savings for the organisations that deploy them

[ClickPress, Mon Apr 03 2006] Telecare solutions will play a central role in addressing the funding and social care issues for older people that were highlighted in yesterday’s King’s Fund Wanless Review (1)

Tunstall, the market leading provider of telecare solutions, comments that a range of UK telecare projects have clearly demonstrated benefits in helping older people to retain their independence and a better quality of life compared with institutional care. At the same time, the projects have shown major cost savings for councils and healthcare bodies. The company suggests this will help to address many of the issues raised in the Wanless Review.

Tunstall points to two recent projects in which telecare technology has delivered clear results. Northamptonshire County Council’s Safe at Home project (2) showed how telecare helped people dementia remain independent, involving 233 individuals and their carers.

Using telecare solutions from Tunstall to deliver support for patients in their own homes, the project enabled four times as many individuals to remain living independently in their own homes when compared with traditional care, and gave local care agencies in Northamptonshire equivalent savings of over £1.5 million during a 21-month research period.

A healthcare initiative run in Kent by Medway Council and Medway PCT used Tunstall solutions for at-home care provision for 31 older people with multi-morbidity cardiovascular issues. By enabling more accurate monitoring of long term conditions and treatment levels, the initiative reduced hospital admissions by 67%, saving 133 hospital days and 117 nursing hours over the 12-month scheme (3).

The Review calls for a new system for funding and delivery of social care for older people in England. Although funding on social care has increased by 39% (in real terms) since 1997, there has been a rise of only 4.3% in the numbers of older people. It says that there will be a 54% increase in the number of older people with high level care needs and a 53% increase in older people with some level of care need over the next twenty years and simply keeping pace with these increasing numbers will require a 139% increase in total spending on social care by 2026.

Alison Rogan, Marketing Director of Tunstall comments: “The Wanless Review shows the pressure that Councils and healthcare bodies will face in the next 20 years as the proportion of older people grows. When introduced as part of an integrated package of care, telecare can prove to be a major enabler to delivering care according to individual needs while reducing the pressure on the State – a fact that the Government has recognised by introducing the £80M Preventative Technology Grant (PTG), which commences today, to fund deployment of telecare solutions.”

(1) The King’s Fund report Securing Good Care for Older People: A Long Term View by Sir Derek Wanless (March 30th 2006) is available from:
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/resources/publications/securing_good.html

(2) Safe at Home – the Effectiveness of Assistive Technology in Supporting the Independence of People with Dementia by John Woolham. (2005) Copies are available from Hawker Publications (London) on 020 7720 2108.

(3) To obtain a copy of the clinical research Telemedicine: Unplanned Care Versus Planned and Co-ordinated Care, visit www.tunstall.co.uk/casestudies or contact us on 01977 660313.

For further information about telecare technology visit www.tunstallgroup.com

Tunstall contact: Emma Roper, 01977 660313, e_roper@tunstall.co.uk
Press contact : Context, Craig Coward or Luke Ford, 01625 511966
Tunstall@contextpr.co.uk