HEALTH chiefs have heralded a pilot scheme giving patients the opportunity to monitor their health from their homes as “astoundingly successful”.

The initiative, run by the Community Health Services arm of NHS East Lancashire, allows patients to carry out electronic self-checks three times a day using a computerised monitoring system called Telehealth.

The results are accessed and viewed remotely by their community matron, who can then phone or visit the patient if there is a concern.

The programme, which was trialed in Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, the Ribble Valley and Rossendale, focussed on a small sample of patients, all of whom have complex or long-term conditions, such as heart conditions or chronic lung or breathing complaints.

NHS East Lancashire said that during the six-month trial the scheme prevented 14 potential hospital admissions.

It said it reduced the need for home visits on 71 occasions, cut the need for 34 GP home visits and replaced the need for ten out-of-hours GP visits.

And it claimed it replaced 84 ‘urgent support’ potential home visits with phone call support and help and prevented 15 out-patient appointments at hospital for recovering heart patients.

Belinda Taylor, long-term conditions manager for NHS East Lancashire, said: “It’s encouraging and heartening when you think that many of these patients would have had to go to hospital or, at the very least, visit their GP’s surgery, when this can be avoided.

“Patients want two things above all, to stay in their own home as much as possible and to have the reassurance that their state of health is being monitored.

“Their own community matron is able to keep a regular check on their condition and either contact them or visit them if there is an alert or concern.

“The idea is to increase a patient’s sense of well-being, to improve their quality of life and their life expectancy and to give them peace of mind.

“It’s a technological innovation that is easy to handle and that seems to pay off. It’s certainly worth pursuing.“ The results of the pilot scheme will now be analysed so the initiative can be refined ahead of a full commission.