Last week, the Prime Minister announced that the Department of Health plans to offer telehealth technology to three million people with long term health conditions over the next five years. Forming a key part of the government’s £180m Life Sciences Strategy, the UK-wide initiative will radically improve the care that Britons receive while helping to reduce costs.
The government’s initiative will give at-risk patients access to technology that can send vital data to doctors easily, preventing patients from having to make regular trips to the hospital for tests.
The scheme follows a successful trial by the NHS in Cornwall, which gave patients access to technology so that they could monitor their health at home. The trial saw death rates reduce by 45 per cent and hospital admissions drop by a fifth – a fantastic result, I’m sure you’ll agree!
Healthcare providers across the world are increasingly turning to telemedicine, having recognised that it can improve service, whilst cutting costs. In the UK alone, it is thought that embracing telemedicine could save the NHS more than £1billion and reduce hospital admissions by around 40 per cent.
A fantastic example of how telemedicine can improve the quality of care for patients can be seen in the Telestroke Network in Lancashire and Cumbria. NHS organisations in the area have embraced technology to reduce the amount of time that it takes for specialist doctors to diagnose patients that are showing the signs of a stroke.
The telemedicine system gives doctors access to vital medical information about the patient and allows them to talk to the patient via video link, so that they can make a diagnosis quickly. With 4,000 people suffering a stroke every year across Lancashire and Cumbria, it’s thought that this new approach could save more than 20 lives a year, whilst saving the NHS in excess of £8m a year.
As more and more healthcare providers launch telemedicine schemes over the coming years, the way that healthcare in the UK is provided could change dramatically.
