Tag Archives: social care

Tracking device for sufferers with dementia will help carers

April 2, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Sat nan! Dementia sufferer Anne gets tracking device to stop her getting lost

 

 

Lifesaver … Joanne Taylor shows how the Buddi tracking system works online
Cavendish Press
By BELLA BATTLE
Published: 4 hrs ago

A DEMENTIA-suffering great gran has been fitted with a tracking device dubbed a “sat nan” because she gets lost so often while out walking.

Anne Grimshaw, 78, has become one of the first people in the UK to be equipped with the technology so her family can find her when she gets lost.

The device – known as “Buddi” – is attached to Anne’s keys and shows her last known position on an online map daughter Joanne has access to.

Anne disappears up to FIVE TIMES A DAY and has been known to walk between 150 and 200 miles a week.

She once unwittingly found herself on the hard shoulder of the motorway and a police search helicopter has also been needed to track her down.

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Please, please we need more dementia nurses

April 2, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Specialist dementia nurses could save NHS £11m a year, Southampton experts claim

8:00am Monday 1st April 2013 in News  By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter

SPECIALIST dementia nurses could save the health service £11m a year, according to experts in Southampton.

A report by the University of Southampton and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is calling for greater support, funding and training of specialist nurses to boost care for dementia patients and save millions of pounds by slashing the time sufferers are in hospital.

With more than 20,000 people suffering from the devastating disease in Southampton and Hampshire, it has highlighted the significant contribution made by specialist dementia nurses in hospitals and found that if they were properly funded and trained, they could reduce hospital stays for older people by one day on average – a saving of almost £11m.

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Telehealth costs more than conventional treatment

March 24, 2013   Carers, DOH, family, health

Budget for NHS cost-cutting scheme to triple

A cost-cutting government scheme to monitor millions of NHS patients remotely in their homes is three times more expensive than expected, and is unlikely to save the predicted £1.2 billion a year, a study has found.

a remote monitoring system transmit patient's blood oxygen levels to the local hospital

Eddie Beardsmore uses a remote monitoring system to transmit his blood oxygen levels to the local hospital Photo: JAY WILLIAMS

By Melanie Hall

One of the Coalition’s key health ambitions — to treat three million people with long-term conditions remotely — would cost £92,000 per patient, way above the £30,000 threshold set by the medical regulator, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

The Department of Health has promoted the “telehealth” scheme, which would involve installing machines in patients’ homes to monitor their conditions and send results electronically to doctors, as a money-saving measure that also improves quality of life and reduces emergency hospital admissions, GP appointments and visits to accident and emergency departments.

However, a trial study of almost 1,000 patients already monitored in this way found that telehealth costs more than conventional treatment.

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