Going digital

What was delivered in 2020-21?

During the past year, we have helped health and social care services adapt to the new digital and socially-distanced way of delivering care. We have provided support to care homes with telemedicine; have helped establish how ready GPs are to adapt to digital care; and supported care home staff to use technology to keep their residents well.

We have also helped primary care colleagues with new technology and platforms, so patients have quick and digital access to services. 

As much of this work occurred in the first wave of the pandemic, much more detail can be found in our special Covid Impact Report from July 2020. From November to March 2021, much of the primary care team's time went to supporting the Covid Oximetry @home work, and securing the Inhealthcare licences. 

Telemedicine for care homes

We developed and delivered an awareness package and materials to support the launch of the telemedicine service for care homes. This service is now being provided to 118 care homes; and has, to date:

• Received 1,237 calls from 118 homes; an average of 21 calls per week 
• Helped to prevent 283 Emergency Department attendances 
• Helped to prevent 243 hospital admissions  
  


• The Telemedicine in Care Homes web page has received over 1,600 views; and the guides have been downloaded 483 times (by March 2021).