Telecare partnership aims to reduce associated costs of health and care services in the UK
A new assistive technology partnership is promising to provide advanced health and care technology to social care providers across the UK to help improve quality of care.
Essence SmartCare, a remote care solutions specialist and part of Essence Group, is working with Medequip, a major UK outsourced provider of community equipment services (CES) to the NHS and local authorities, to implement its Care@Home telecare services platform in social care and retirement facilities across England.
Medequip is starting to integrate Essence SmartCare’s Care@Home platform into social housing and sheltered accommodation facilities around the UK.
It involves implementing both the Care@Home Family and Care@Home Pro services for intelligent emergency alerting based on seniors’ activity. The intelligent assistive technologies will enable councils to provide improved services, including round-the-clock monitoring through the Medequip Connect monitoring and emergency response service.
“Essence and Medequip share a joint commitment to supporting seniors and vulnerable people by introducing technologies that enable them to maintain their independence, whether living at home or in assisted living facilities,” said Barak Katz, General Manager of Essence SmartCare. “We are delighted to partner with Medequip and look forward to collaborating on more nationwide projects as we continue in our mission to improve the provision of care for these individuals across the UK.”
Care@Home Pro is an end-to-end solution for telecare service providers that continuously learns and adapts to the daily behaviour of individuals to identify significant deviation from daily routines. It provides real-time alerts to enable timely interventions that can potentially prevent deterioration in a person’s wellbeing.
Care@Home Family provides proactive customised care that allows families to support vulnerable relatives who require partial or full daily monitoring, without infringing on their dignity. It includes the MDsense multi-dimensional fall detection solution, which is a non-wearable, wireless, battery-powered technology that provides round-the-clock monitoring. It enables caregivers to respond to events faster by eliminating the risk of missed falls or false alerts.
“Partnering with Essence SmartCare is enabling us to significantly improve our services offering, providing caregivers with advanced tools that enhance the safety of their residents while providing timely alerts to enable them to respond promptly in case of emergency,” added Stephen McKee, Head of Technology Enabled Care for Medequip. “As the UK’s ageing population continues to grow, these implementations will prove crucial in allowing people to maintain their independence and dignity.”
Essence SmartCare and Medequip have initiated installations of the Care@Home platform in homes across London, with the expectation to have completed 3,000 implementations in London and the north west by August 2023.
“We are proud of our continued success in the UK market, providing cutting-edge technologies that make a difference and substantially improve the provision of care for those who need it most,” concluded Dr. Haim Amir, CEO and Founder of Essence Group. “We are delighted to enter a long-term partnership with a market leader such as Medequip that shares our commitment to providing peace of mind and improving the lives of seniors and vulnerable populations.”
Medequip has won several CES contracts over the last few months including the Community Equipment and Wheelchair Service in Somerset and the Integrated Community Equipment Service for Norfolk and Waveney.
The Somerset contract was commissioned by Somerset County Council and NHS Somerset and will run for five years; it started in August 2022. Over the five-year period, Medequip expects to introduce new initiatives to evolve the service provision as demands on the service change and emerge across the health and social care sector.
Norfolk County Council commissioned the Integrated Community Equipment Service, which will begin on 1 April 2023. For this contract, Medequip will be responsible for procuring, storing, delivering, installing, maintaining, collecting, and reusing a range of health and daily living equipment and undertaking minor housing adaptations.