Health Minister Jeremy Hunt MP has announced that 100,000 people across the country are set to benefit from telehealth as he set out his vision for improving the lives of people with long-term conditions at an Age UK conference.
The Minster said, "Technology can help people manage their condition at home, free up a lot of time and save the NHS money. In a world where technology increasingly helps us manage our social and professional lives, it seems logical that it should also help people manage their health."
This announcement coincided with the launch of the NHS Mandate "A mandate from the Government to the NHS Commissioning Board April 2013 to March 2015" on Tuesday, which sets out the ambitions for the health service. It states that by March 2015 "significant progress will be made towards 3 million people being able to benefit from telehealth and telecare by 2017; supporting them to manage and monitor their condition at home and reducing the need for avoidable visits to their GP practice and hospital."
As a member of 3millionlives, Tunstall Healthcare, the leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, has been working with industry colleagues and the Department of Health to make it easier to deploy telehealth and telecare at scale. This includes a range of initiatives such as developing service and standards definition documents, evolving revenue based commercial models and making strides to raise awareness across all stakeholders.
Simon Arnold, UK Managing Director of Tunstall Healthcare says: "These announcements are a very welcome step in the right direction. Whilst the Mandate doesn't contain specific targets, it does contain measures to innovate the NHS in order to be more responsive to patient's needs.
"The Government's commitment to 3millionlives is absolute, but we also require a major shift in thinking from the clinical community - industry has a key role to play in helping make the doctor's life easier, whether by system integration, care pathway redesign, or via patient engagement and evidence of outcomes.
"As a global provider, we are proud that we have enabled many thousands of people to be supported to live the life they want to live, and look forward to working with industry colleagues and professionals to enable even more people's lives to be transformed by telehealthcare over the coming year."
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About Tunstall
Tunstall Healthcare Group is the market leading provider of telehealthcare solutions, with over 2.5 million users globally. Tunstall's solutions support older people and those with long-term needs, helping them to live independently by effectively managing their health and well-being. Its solutions have been proven effective in the world's largest telehealthcare trial. Tunstall provides technology, expertise and advice to millions of people enabling them to lead independent more fulfilling lives.