Home from home

A major educational event called ‘An Introduction to Telehealth’ took place in Urmston.

Patients with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and hypertension could all benefit from using state-of-the-art equipment to manage and track any changes in their health to reduce the risk of needing urgent or unplanned hospital treatment.

Medical director of Trafford Provider Services and event organiser Dr Michael Gregory said: “Over the past year Trafford GPs have been working closely with hospital doctors, patients, nursing specialists and social care colleagues to explore how we truly integrate our services to create a new and modern healthcare system.

“We recognise the use of telehealth equipment as a powerful tool in helping us to achieve our goal of shifting more care from a reactive hospital-based setting to a proactive community based setting, with increased activity in health screening, health improvement and care at home.”

Telehealth works by remote monitoring of patient vital signs such as blood pressure, weight, blood glucose and oxygen saturation with easy to use equipment. The readings are relayed either via a phone line or modem to a central secure database where results can be viewed by a healthcare professional.

Any cases that exceed pre-set parameters raise an alert to ensure the individual then receives medical attention.

The event provided an opportunity for more than 150 doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals and healthcare managers that work in Trafford to learn more about how they can start working with these new technologies.

Diabetes patient Don McGeachin was among those attending the event. He said: “When you have a chronic condition you can feel like a victim who is dependent on other people to keep you well. Telehealth equipment has huge potential to help many patients living with certain conditions in Trafford to run their lives more independently and feel human again.”