The patient from hell asks when the lessons from the WSD will be shared and what the delay means for the future of telecare

• Dick Vinegar
• Guardian Professional, Tuesday 10 April 2012 11.15 BST

I am in despair about the future of telecare. You will remember that a trial, called the whole system demonstrator, covering 6000 long-term patients in Kent, Newham and Cornwall, has been chuntering along for about three years. In June last year, a Kings Fund conference announced relatively upbeat preliminary findings for the WSD. The full report was supposed to be imminent. But autumn and winter came and went, and still the report did not appear. We were told that it was just going through the necessary “peer review” process.

At the beginning of March, the Kings Fund held a two-day international congress on telehealth and telecare. Ah, thought I, naively, this is when the WSD report will finally be launched in all its glory, and will give a massive boost to the swift roll-out of telecare across the country.