Telecare eNewsletter April 2014

The April 2014 newsletter from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), Knowledge Transfer Network and the Telecare Learning and Improvement Network is now available under the link at the bottom of the page.

Launched October 2005, our free monthly newsletter is now distributed to 48,000 subscribers in the UK and worldwide via e-mail and archived at www.telecarelin.org.uk. You can also find highlights on Rebelmouse (daily) or by following Mike Clark on Twitter (@clarkmike).

With over 1200 news and events links over the last month, we hope that you find this newsletter useful.

It has been a year now since the major NHS reorganisation in England, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have been identifying how much money will be placed into pooled funds along with local authority social care services. Final versions of 151 Better Care Fund plans had to be submitted by 4 April 2014. Over the coming year, there will be further discussions and updates on how these integrated care plans will be implemented. Many CCGs are talking about hospital admission reductions of 10-20% in 2015/2016 as around £2bn of funding is diverted from hospitals into the community. The early indications are that as much as £5bn will be pooled across health & care in 2015/16. Service transformation will be essential to make the best use of primary care and community-based staff and resources. CCGs and local authorities are identifying the use of technology to help support this transformation - whether joined up health and care records, online appointments, Skype calls, telehealth and telecare. The Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) delivery plan (available soon) along with the Transforming Primary Care Report and funding for GP IT systems, the Nursing Technology Fund and the NHS Mandate requirements will need to be implemented carefully to ensure that scare resources are not wasted and new services are cost-effective. There is an updated IT and telehealth strategy from Wales as the arrangements for £9.5m of funding are announced. The future of long term care arrangements in the UK will be in the spotlight as six new projects look at how we can move away from institutional models and if you missed the Aktive Conference, there are links to reports, presentations and videos.

For weekly news, updates and information, you can register with the Technology Strategy Board, ALIP group and the dallas sub-group. You can follow the dallas programme on Twitter at @dallas_connect. You can also access a Twitter Stream via the TelecareLIN website.

There are two supplements this month (Links Supplement & Better Care Fund and Telecare/Telehealth)