Extending telecare services to 800,000 more people could save the UK £14.5bn: study

February 18, 2022 | by

An economic analysis by digital connectivity consultancy FarrPoint found that extending telecare and technology-enabled care services to more people aged 75+ could achieve benefits of  £14.5 billion over the next decade. By country, the savings are £12.3 billion in England, £1.1 billion in Scotland, £717 million in Wales, and £370 million in Northern Ireland.  The benefits are improving social inclusion, wellbeing and community resilience, alleviating bed blocking and hospital admissions which are highly quantifiable costs to the healthcare system.

Currently, 2 million people use telecare services in the UK. Based on current take-up rates of 1 in 5 (aged 75+), if this were 1 in 3, an additional 800,000 people could benefit from access to technology-enabled care across the country (eHealth Scot). Over the next decade, that group will likely grow to 1 million, totaling 3 million of the estimated 7.3 million aged 75+ in 2030 (Office of National Statistics estimate)

FarrPoint’s point of view is that the expansion of telehealth is necessary to alleviate the coming demographic crunch in the social care system to prevent a crisis. Their definition of telecare is a modest one: pendants connected to alarm centers and door, bed, and fall sensors.

Their findings are also linked with the first-ever telecare analysis across Wales for TEC Cymru, the program responsible for supporting the shift to technology-enabled care in Wales, where 67% of councils are moving from analog to digital technology for telecare services to their current 77,000 persons, mostly over 65. FarrPoint article

Caveat: we do hope they account for the downsides of VOIP and power outages cutting all telecom off to the vulnerable, all too common in the rural parts of the UK where they live [TTA 21 Dec 21].

Hat tip to Adrian Scaife, who has moved to the ‘Big T’ as Group Product Manager Housing at Tunstall Healthcare (in a smart move on their part!)

If the market’s expanding, where’s the telecare and TEC boom?

September 25, 2019 | by

A question this Editor’s been asking since 2007, wondering why the rising tide of the market isn’t lifting the business boats. Adrian Scaife’s brief article on the TSA blog rhetorically asks the question and speculates on some answers. Mr. Scaife starts with the Care Technology Landscape Review’s [TTA 18 July] simple fact that growth in the UK has been flat for the past decade at 1.7m users nationally. Yet the demographics, social care dynamics, and the desire to live independently at home, enabled by more accessible and usable technology, should mean otherwise. 

Some of the reasons why are addressed in the Care Technology report: the industry’s focus on bright shiny tech, what sells to organizations versus emerging needs–and not focusing on benefits to the end users or ‘design and delight in the way the solutions look’ (the Apple paradigm). As Mr. Scaife put it, “It is perhaps not surprising consumers are currently voting with their feet!”

What might get the feet going in the other direction?  A “new generation of telecare that builds on existing services” that “delivers proactive, preventative, consumer friendly services with positive reassurance”. The difference is that this can be enabled by both “interoperable devices” (that shiny tech) but integrated with data that can provide that proactive insight. But those insights must be supported by a health and social care structure, more in place in the UK than in the US, for instance–and that may require the transformation first versus later. Why Isn’t Our TEC Industry Booming?

TSA’s 2016 International Technology Enabled Care Conference (UK)

September 30, 2016 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/TSA-logo-400×400.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]18-19 October, the ICC Birmingham

A reminder than in a few short weeks the annual International Technology Enabled Care Conference will take place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, hosting UK organizations across health, housing, home care, social care, industry and more.

The event will focus on TEC with the theme ‘Connected Care, Connected Homes and Connected Communities’, and feature a packed programme with, as they put it, “challenging debates, thought-provoking presentations, interactive workshops and brand new interactive zones to inspire, inform and drive forward sector collaboration.” The draft programme is here. Find out more at the conference’s home page and register at the full website here.  There are also a few exhibition booth stands and sponsorships left, looking at the interactive floor map, so your company may want to check here as well.

If you are a Reader and attending, please feel free to send Editor Donna your thoughts for publication on where the industry is going and what is it doing. (Please indicate if it is for attribution under your name or a nom de plume)

TSA Conference – dates for your diary

May 28, 2016 | by

The TSA’s 2016 Technology Enabled Care (TEC) and digital health sector conference will be taking place on 18 & 19 October in the ICC in Birmingham. It will be chaired for the second year by former Minister of State for Care Services, the Rt Hon Paul Burstow.

It will focus on the theme ‘Connected Care, Connected Homes and Connected Communities’ bringing together organisational leaders and audiences across government, health, social care, housing, home care, industry, third sector and more.

A “packed programme” is apparently being developed with “challenging debates, thought-provoking presentations, interactive workshops and brand new exhibition zones to inspire, inform and drive forward sector collaboration”.

Earlybird booking here.