UK: Roll out of mobile and digital health technology could save NHS billions

The widespread roll-out of mobile and digital health technology could have already saved the NHS over £1 billion in the last five years by enabling patients to leave hospital sooner, the report says.

‘Remote Health Management: Reducing Bed Blocking in the NHS’ calls for the Department of Health to create a standardised remote health management network by 2020. This secure digital network would provide acute and social care providers with easy access to patient data and remote monitoring, and allow for the faster discharge of patients from hospital.

Caring for patients at a residential care home or at home is at least 70 per cent cheaper than care in hospital and also reduces the risk of contracting hospital-acquired infections.

Helen Meese, head of healthcare at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said, “Unnecessary delays to patients being discharged from hospital are a problem for health workers, taxpayers and patients alike. Technology to monitor patients remotely is a key way they could be safely discharged from hospital earlier.  Currently trials of this technology in the NHS have been sorely lacking.”

“Government needs to urgently introduce a secure standardised remote health management network to connect hospitals with social care providers to enable people to live more independent lives,” Meese said.

The Institution’s report makes four main recommendations:

1. 
   Improving public awareness: the Department of Health (DoH) should create a programme of national public awareness to encourage acceptance of remote home monitoring technology and home-based services provided by the NHS.
2. 
   Changing culture with existing workforce: the NHS should draw upon its existing workforce of biomedical engineers to implement change and increase engagement in remote health management systems throughout its services.
3. 
   Creating a national remote health management network: the DoH must commit to a strategy for creating a network to integrate acute and social care sectors by 2020. A key element will be standardisation of technology that enables patient data to be accessed anywhere in the hospital and social care network.
   
   4. Simplifying funding routes and initiatives: the Government must ring-fence some of the £20-£30m identified in the Accelerated Access Review for speeding access to new drugs and treatments, specifically for developing remote health monitoring systems.  
   

Full report: Remote Health Management: Reducing Bed Blocking in the NHS