The Welsh Government will fund technology to monitor people’s health conditions at home, as part of transformation plans for the west of the nation.
Welsh health secretary Vaughan Gething announced £12 million to help move health services into people’s own homes, helping them keep their independence, with technology-based monitoring as one of its main methods.
The money comes from the Welsh Government’s £100 million transformation fund, which was established based on a recommendation in A Healthier Wales, a long-term plan for health and wellbeing published by the Welsh Government in June 2018. Gething has already approved seven proposals from regional partnerships and on 19 February he told the National Assembly that other proposals focus on moving care out of hospitals and closer to home. “There is a strong emphasis on bridging gaps and reshaping how people access healthcare and social services,” he said.
The projects will be delivered through regional partnerships which cover both NHS and social care services. The west Wales announcement covers Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, largely rural areas where it may take significantly longer to travel to healthcare facilities than in cities.
* Mobile network operator Vodafone has published a report on how technology could tackle loneliness among 1.5 million older people, claiming this has an annual cost to the UK economy of £1.8 billion. The company will run a series of 20 free ‘techconnect’ technology classes across the country in 2019 to provide advice.
Image of IoT technology in the home. Open Government Licence v3.0
