Another week, another rash of headlines proclaiming a new crisis in the NHS. This week, newspapers told us that England’s healthcare system is facing the worst bed-blocking crisis in history.
NHS England has disclosed that delays in discharging patients from hospital have risen by nearly a quarter since last summer. It is reported that 6,000 patients are well enough to leave hospital every day, but cannot because of the lack of aftercare.
As taxpayers and technologists, we are both angered and saddened at delays in transfers of care. We have worked hard to develop and prove the technology to help solve this problem.
If adopted at scale, our digital care home service could make an enormous difference to patients’ lives and reduce a huge amount of strain on the NHS. Our technology helps create the trusted aftercare that is missing from many parts of the social care system.
It monitors vital signs, weight, nutrition and hydration and integrates that information straight into GP systems, alerting the community care teams if a resident’s condition deteriorates.
This creates confidence among clinicians that patients can be monitored outside of hospital, supporting early discharge.
Our digital care home service has so much potential to reduce these unnecessary and costly delays in discharging patients.
We have invested millions of pounds in our digital health products, working hand in hand with clinicians to create services that are safe and secure and are proven to achieve results for patients and increase productivity in the NHS. With stronger leadership, the NHS could grasp this opportunity, transform our healthcare system with technology fit for the 21st century and stop wasting taxpayers’ money with sticking-plaster solutions.