Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire residents benefit from NHS remote monitoring tech

A joined-up NHS@Home initiative in Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire is seeing patients receive care in the comfort of their own homes thanks to helpful remote monitoring technologies.

The move is part of measures to improve care while relieving pressures on busy local hospitals in the area and will see hundreds more residents benefit from NHS@Home.

NHS@Home is a collaborative service by local NHS organisations that offers hospital-level care and remote monitoring in an individual’s home, providing an alternative to hospital admission or helping them to return home promptly following an inpatient stay.

Care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals working from a clinical hub in Bristol.  The team uses cutting-edge monitoring devices, smartphones, and other technology to check a person’s condition remotely and provide clinical advice and support.

Lisa Manson, Director of Performance & Delivery at the NHS BNSSG Integrated Care Board, said: “We’re really pleased that thanks to the NHS@Home scheme, more people will be able to benefit from high-quality, hospital-level care in the comfort of their own home – which is often where they would rather be.

“There’s a growing body of evidence that demonstrates that this approach provides a range of benefits for patients, who recover more quickly in the comfort of their home environment and are less prone to the ‘deconditioning’ which can affect those who stay in hospital for longer periods of time.

“It also gives us extra capacity within our health and care system during the busy winter months when pressure on our hospital beds is at its most intense.”

Patients receiving care through the NHS@Home service are given a tailor-made box of equipment, the ‘Doccla box’, which includes a pre-configured smartphone with a large font that is easier to read for those with poor vision.

The box also includes wearable medical devices that, depending on a person’s needs, can measure heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, blood oxygen levels, and blood pressure, allowing healthcare professionals to keep people under close observation and intervene if needed.

Healthcare professionals may also visit an individual’s home to provide face-to-face care, if required.

Jen Tomkinson, Head of Specialist Services at Sirona care & health and NHS@Home Joint Clinical Lead for the community, commented: “We are working with other health care professionals across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to undertake the remote monitoring via a virtual hub in the community as well as face to face visits, if required. It is a great example of collaborative working between health and care organisations, and we have had outstanding feedback from people receiving the service.

“Many people have said that they feel safer knowing they are being regularly monitored, and they receive a huge psychological boost from being at home, in comfortable surroundings with their loved ones. This sort of approach is definitely the future of healthcare and we’re proud to be part of it.”

Following the service’s success during the coronavirus pandemic, £3.5 million extra funding this winter is now enhancing the service to include those with respiratory and heart conditions. The local service will be able to care for up to 165 people at a time.

The NHS@Home expansion forms part of more than an £18 million investment in schemes to increase bed capacity and respond to demand for NHS services in Bristol, North Somerset and, South Gloucestershire during the challenging winter months.

One such scheme being implemented in the area is a temporary ‘care hotel’ to support faster hospital discharge for patients awaiting a home care and rehabilitation package.

Rebecca Winterborn, Consultant Vascular Surgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust and NHS@Home Joint Clinical Lead, added: “I’ve worked closely with colleagues from University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, in particular Consultant Respiratory Physician Kathryn Bateman, and Sirona care & health, to develop this new digitally-enabled service and have seen first-hand the difference it can make.

“NHS@Home provides safe care, tailored to the individual, in the place they call home, as an alternative to being in a hospital bed. This means they can be comfortable in their own surroundings, retain their independence and are less likely to experience deconditioning.

“Feedback from patients is overwhelmingly positive and supports this, and we hope to be able to care for many more people in this way over winter and beyond.

“As well as improving the experience of patients, NHS@Home helps make beds available for planned operations and care across our region. The HomeFirst approach is a step towards more personalised healthcare and demonstrates a cultural shift in the delivery of wellbeing and health support for our communities.”

Last year, Healthwatch England published a helpful report exploring people’s experiences with using technology to monitor their health conditions at home and how NHS services could improve in this area. Read it here.