The hospice started using telemedicine two years ago in partnership with the Telehealth Hub at Airedale Hospital. The hospice’s community team covers a large rural area, and the telemedicine service has proved to be a cost effective way of delivering support and advice to patients and health and social care professionals.
Currently around 150 of the hospice’s patients receive palliative care in their own home and the specialists nurses also provide advice to the GPs, district nurses and practice staff who help look after them.
Pat Mowatt, clinical nurse specialist and telemedicine lead at Manorlands Hospice, said: “Telemedicine has helped us so much compared to just telephone contact as the added dimension of being able to see a patient enables us to judge more confidently what treatments or other care to recommend.”
Helen Livingstone, consultant for palliative care with both Manorlands and Airedale Hospital, said: “Telemedicine helps us to care for patients where they want to be – which is usually home. It will also be helpful for care home staff who may need advice and support to help their residents who are approaching the end of life to die peacefully where they have chosen to be cared for.”
Mike Hughes, palliative care consultant at the hospice, added: “Telemedicine enabled me to assess, visually, a patient who was too poorly to come to the phone. The primary healthcare team were considering admission to the hospice for this patient, but telemedicine allowed me to ask the patient where she wanted to be cared for. The patient could not speak, but was able to express her wishes by using a ‘thumbs-up’ gesture. Her preferred place of care was at home. This also helped the healthcare team to feel confident that they were doing the right thing.”
One patient’s relative commented: “The benefits of the tele-consultation service is not to be measured by its practical use, but by the psychological support it gives. It overcomes the feeling of vulnerability, particularly living in the country at some distance from help. It was reassuring, particularly weekends and evenings, knowing that there was someone that could help”.
The extended service will allow care home staff to have a telemedicine consultation with a senior doctor or specialist nurse at the hospice – these could involve care home staff requesting help for dealing with patients’ symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting and restlessness, or just for general support.
The service will be available between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Outside these times, the care homes can get advice from Airedale Hospital’s 24-hour Telehealth Hub.
Lack of understanding of telehealth
The extension of the service coincides with the release of new figures by the National Telehealth Forum, which indicate that the vast majority of people in the UK have no understanding of the term ‘telehealth’ or of its ability to support people with long term conditions. The research, conducted by YouGov, surveyed 2,066 adults in the UK, and found that 90% had never heard of telehealth.
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