Big telehealth pilot fails to deliver cost benefits

Anticipated high payback from a massive telehealth pilot has failed to materialise after delays to the project’s rollout.

 

NHS North Yorkshire and York introduced a pilot telehealth scheme in 2009, the largest telehealth scheme outside the Whole Systems Demonstrator Programme. Initial plans for the contract with Tunstall were to have 1,500 units in use by the end of the 2010-11 financial year: but by June 2011, only 350 of the 2,000 units had been deployed.

 

While the Trust had planned on saving £3.4m by the end of 2010-11, it only achieved savings of an estimated £196,000. However an internal audit report does say that the potential savings, once all the units have been deployed, are now expected to be in excess of those originally estimated.

 

GPs are now being offered incentives to use devices in a bid to boost uptake, with the PCT giving practices a one-off payment of £200 and additional £50 per installation. In addition, patients who need the service for six months or longer will earn the practice another £50.

 

Nrth Yorkshire and York’s assistant director of strategy, Kerry Wheeler, admitted to E-Helath Insider that,  “After working with a number of GP practices to get up and running with telehealth, we identified the need to offer a small payment to cover the initial workload associated with identifying and referring patients.”