A WEST Dorset care home has been awarded £60,000 to continue using a ‘life-saving’ system.

Harbour House in West Bay will now have the use of Telehealth for another year.

Telehealth, offered by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), monitors residents’ blood pressure, oxygen levels and temperature, it asks the carer and the resident questions about how they are feeling. This information is passed on to a clinical team at Poole Hospital who can check the data against the residents’ ‘baseline’ health information and contact the home if there is a problem and guide them through what needs to be done.

The kit includes three iPads, three finger sensors, three blood pressure cuffs and three electronic thermometers.

Anna Knight, manager at Harbour House, was able to include Harbour House in the initial pilot, which was initially only available to nursing homes. The first year has been a real success but unfortunately they were contacted earlier this year to say that the pilot would not be continuing.

Anna wrote to the CCG to raise her concerns about the home losing the Telehealth scheme and stressed how it had been a life-saver. She was clear that Telehealth has reduced hospital admissions and GP visits and instilled confidence the Harbour House residents.

Because of the letter, the home has been awarded £60,000 to continue the project for a year.

Anna said: “We are not a nursing home and we don’t have any nurses on site so it gives our carers the skills to triage and reassure the residents. Originally it was only going to be for people with diabetes, COPD, heart disease and a history of ongoing urine and chest infections. We asked if we could make a bespoke package for Harbour House and this idea was supported.

“All our residents have capacity, their response to it is that they feel really reassured. Some residents are doing it themselves, which is amazing.

“The outcome is a massive reduction in hospital admissions, an ability to catch chest infections and UTIs before they take hold. We’ve got one resident who has been in hospital and it was Telehealth who made us aware of her immediate need , it was Telehealth that told us we needed to get her an ambulance urgently because we could track her stats were changing by the minute. The kit is so expensive, that is the biggest issue. All of the equipment that is provided, particularly the iPads, is a lot of money. But when I sent them all the data and showed them the potential saving for the NHS, they agreed to fund it for another year.”

“We’re an outstanding care home in the top three per cent in the country and this is all about innovation. Innovation is what keeps care homes across the country outstanding, this is what CQC are looking for. It is also an innovative way to keep our residents safe, our clinical colleagues informed and our families reassured.”