Award for Telecare monitoring

The lives of more than 3000 vulnerable people are being improved by an award-winning, hi-tech system which has been named the best in Scotland.

Telecare uses sensors to continuously monitor the homes of people in Renfrewshire who need specialist care, constantly checking for real-time emergencies and changes in personal habits which could indicate problems.

The sensors are discreetly placed around the home to monitor risks such as smoke, flooding or gas leaks.

Renfrewshire Council’s Care 24 Telecare operation won the first National Crystal Award from the Telecare Services Association.

Councillor Eileen McCartin, convener of the council’s Community and Family Care Policy Board, said: “Telecare is a vital tool for vulnerable people. It makes a real difference to their lives. Telecare installations are used to support not only older people but the youngest.

“For example, children with learning difficulties or mental health issues can be monitored through door sensors, allowing parents peace of mind to sleep at night knowing they will receive a call to alert them should the child wake up and start moving about the home.”

The system can creates a 24-hour picture of how mobile and active a person is, as well as any changes in daily activity, possibly caused by a fall or a stroke.

We need more extra care housing

Once again a report has highlighted the need for better health and social care integration. Today’s report by BUPA, discussed in the Telegraph, states that a shortage of residential care is resulting in the blocking of hospital beds.

The report “Who Cares? Funding Adult Social Care Over the Next Decade” predicts that the number of care home beds will continue to decrease.  The report suggests that this will result in more elderly people ending up in hospital, whereas they could have been treated in a nursing home.  Clearly there is a need for better coordination between health and social care commissioning.

There is a current trend for the elderly to continue to be cared for at home for longer, rather than entering care homes.  However for this to work there needs to be sufficient housing available, appropriate for those less able to care for themselves.  Smart homes, with telecare sensors to trigger alerts in case of accidents, and designed to make living easier, have been developed for many years, however there is a low availability of such housing in the UK.

We should follow the example of New Zealand, where there are many areas of specialised housing, in easy reach of care centres and healthcare facilities.  Those who are no longer able to care for themselves fully, but still want a degree of indepedence have the option of moving to such purpose-built homes.

One example in this country is that of the Lovat Fields retirement village in Milton Keynes, which has been deemed a success by the council.  Grouping those needing care has been found to improve efficiency of care – not only is there purpose-built housing to enable the inhabitants to do more for themselves, but with those needing care living closer together less time is spent travelling by the care staff. More facilities are now being planned in Milton Keynes along the same lines.

Security Company Pleads Guilty After Woman's Rape

 Garda Canada Security Corporation has pleaded guilty in a case where a lone female guard was raped on a work site. The lone worker, who cannot be identified, was sexually assaulted by intruder Renno Lonechild over a twenty minute period after she contacted Garda dispatch for assistance and was transferred to 911. The rape took place overnight at an unsecured construction site in the Calgary, Alberta area. The guard had only been on the job one week at the time, and was sent to the site when a co-worker called in sick. Lonechild has been convicted, and faces eight years in prison. Because a corporation cannot be given jail time for an offence, Garda will be fined instead. They are expected to pay $90,000, of which roughly $5,000 will go to the employee herself.

Failure to Ensure Employee Safety
 Under Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) companies are required to conduct risk assessments, and to take measures to ensure employee safety, particularly in the case of individuals working alone. Security guards are among several groups of workers identified as being at greater risk when working alone. Experts say this case, which according to Crown prosecutor Alison McGill is the first of its kind in Alberta and perhaps all of Canada, highlights the need to tighten up enforcement in the area of lone worker safety and to prosecute employers that fail to conduct hazard assessments or ensure employee safety.

Another stage of sheltered housing project complete

A TOPPING out ceremony has taken place to mark the completion of external building work on a £9m care complex in Burton.

The Trent and Dove development in Anglesey Road will offer a mix of 67 one and two-bedroom new homes, 52 of which will be for rent and 15 for shared ownership.

The Chestnut Grange complex will include a restaurant, a small shop, a secure private garden, a hairdressing salon and health facilities.

It will also be wired up to high-tech computer and scanner systems to offer the latest in ‘Telecare’, which can sense risks such as smoke, floods and gas, remind occupants to take pills and call for help if they fall.

The complex will have low-energy heating and hot water systems to achieve lower running costs for residents.

The scheme was made possible following an agreement being reached with Staffordshire County Council concerning Horace Pritchard House Sheltered Scheme, which adjoined the site of Trent and Dove’s former Anglesey Court sheltered complex, and is expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) gave the project a major ‘shot in the arm’ when it awarded a grant of £4.6m towards the cost of the development.

The property is designed to achieve ‘Lifetime Home Standards’, which provides for long-term adaptability and flexibility.

Construction is being undertaken by Walsall-based contractors, and work started in May. Local schoolchildren were involved in a demolition event that saw hundreds of balloons being released by them to mark the occasion.

The children are now involved in a competition to guess when the first residents move into their new home and were invited to the topping out ceremony last week to mark the milestone.

Ron Dougan, chief executive at Trent and Dove, said: “We’re pleased to be developing these new homes with our strategic development partners Matrix, who bring a wealth of experience in terms of best practice and expertise. This is a key milestone along the way and I would like to thank the county council, borough council and the HCA for their support, without which this scheme would not have been possible.”

County councillor Matthew Ellis, cabinet member for adults and wellbeing, said: “Chestnut Grange is a great example of how people can live life to the full with greater independence and safe in the knowledge that there is 24/7 care and support available on demand as their health circumstances change.”

All but one of the properties offered for shared ownership have been snapped up and anyone interested should contact Kath Jennings at Trent and Dove as soon as possible.

Ms Jennings is available by telephoning 01283 528528.

Safety concerns at quarter of Derbyshire waste sites spot-checked

Almost one in four Derbyshire skip-hire and waste transfer sites visited in spot checks were found to be potentially putting their workers at risk of injury.

Five of the 21 sites visited by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors during January were served with enforcement notices, which forced work to stop in the most serious cases. A total of ten notices were issued, with four of them at just one site.

Most of the notices were issued due to serious problems with the way vehicles are used on site and the associated risk to employees. In a number of cases there was little by way of controls to keep people away from moving vehicles, particularly those reversing.

At other sites visited, health and safety was found to be good, although some were given safety advice where there was room for improvement, such as ensuring adequate maintenance of equipment.

The waste and recycling sector has an overall accident rate around four times greater than the UK average and a fatal accident rate around nine times the average for all industries.

Inspectors from HSE aimed to raise the level of awareness of the serious hazards and risks associated with waste transfer sites including workplace transport, the operation of large, powerful, machinery and the hand-sorting of waste which often takes place in close proximity to large vehicles.

HSE inspector Edward Walker led the initiative. He said:

"It is totally unacceptable that lives have been lost and continue to be put at risk on waste sites. This is why we carried out the recent campaign targeting sites in Derbyshire.

"Our inspectors found that the majority of sites were operating safely, but the fact there were safety concerns on almost a quarter of the sites is just not good enough. The industry needs to continue to raise its game and ensure the safety of its workers is paramount."

Notes to editors
The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
Inspectors can issue -

- A prohibition notice is served where there is immediate danger and the work must stop immediately, while the issue is resolved.
An improvement notice that sets a timeframe for a particular situation to be resolved, but work can continue.
HSE enforcement policy is available http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/index.htm

Video conference consultants boost emergency stroke care

Dr Damian Jenkinson said that letting groups of hospitals share stroke consultants, who use videoconferencing to examine patients and view brain scans, increases the use of clot-busting drugs.


There are too few consultants to provide round-the-clock cover at every major hospital in person, he told the Mobile and Wireless Healthcare conference in Birmingham: "We need network solutions to make this happen."


Consultants aim to use the clot-busting drugs within three hours of a stroke taking place, as they help arrest the rapid death of brain cells caused by the condition.


Jenkinson, who is national clinical lead for the NHS Stroke Improvement Programme, said Lancashire and Cumbria had calculated that it would be able to provide the drugs to 400 patients from the 4,000 stroke admissions the area makes each year, rather than 20 as at present. In doing so it would save £2m annually, in return for one-off spending of £285,000 and annual costs of £115,000, with the savings including reduced hospital stays.


The NHS has already established several 'telestroke' networks, including a group of nine hospitals in the east of England and three hospitals in east Kent. Jenkinson is consultant stroke physician at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch foundation trust, which is not within any of the networks but does enable consultants to view brain scans remotely.


Research in Germany has shown that of the patients treated with these drugs by a group of networked hospitals, 56% are 'independent' after three months, having avoided death or debilitating injuries from their stroke. The Tempis research found this figure was just 46% at a control group of non-networked hospitals.


Jenkinson said the use of telehealth technologies could provide strong benefits in treating other serious conditions. The Veterans' Health Association in the US has found it reduced hospital bed days for patients over 65 by a quarter through the use of such systems.


But he claimed that telehealth systems, unlike telecare technology such as emergency pendants, are sparsely used in the UK. "We're lagging in global terms," he said.


Greater use of telehealth would help meet the government's Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention agenda, he said, adding that the Whole System Demonstrator projects in England will shortly start providing examples which should help justify the initial spending required.

CarelineUK successfully accredited to the new TSA Code of Practice

CarelineUK, the tried and trusted’ emergency call response service, has been accredited to the Monitoring Module of the 2009 Telecare Code of Practice.

This achievement is the result of CarelineUK’s sector leading customer service. A rigorous recruitment process and continuous training programme has resulted in excellent end-user feedback. Independent research conducted in 2010 found 97% of customers stated that their experience of CarelineUK either lived up to or exceeded expectations.

CarelineUK’s staff retention is also at an all time high, with retention rates over four times higher than they were three years ago.

The 2009 Code is the result of the widest stakeholder consultation exercise ever undertaken by the Telecare Services Association (TSA). Government bodies across the UK teamed up with TSA members to ensure telecare service providers ensure quality standards for service delivery to the 1.7 million people benefiting from telecare in the UK.

CarelineUK is the largest telecare response centre with over 121,000 connections and calls received during 2010 reached over 1.5m.

Carl Atkey, Head of CarelineUK, says: “As an employer we recognise effective training and development is essential for employees to deliver excellent customer service. We achieve this through performance development reviews, six-month training inductions and ongoing training programmes which can include external NVQs and diplomas. Our investment in training saw the company achieve Investors in People status in 2008, so we are thrilled to now receive the TSA 2009 Telecare Code of Practice.”