In the debate, MSPs agreed that Scotland should establish national-scale telehealth services, and that Health Boards should be subject to targets that mainstream the use of telehealth in patient care. They also recognised that innovation through technology will be vital in delivering Scotland's 2020 Vision for health and social care.
However, raising concerns, Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, pointed out that the people most likely to benefit from telecare - those in rural and remote communities - are also the least likely to have access to broadband and mobile technology.
Dr Richard Simpson, Labour MSP for mid Scotland and Fife, added: "The success of telehealth or telecare, like that in other areas, depends on all parts of the managed care network or clinical pathway being effective. We cannot ignore the serious pressures on the NHS ... [we] need a redesign of the back-up services."
Telecare and telehealth, as well as text appointment reminders can be used by GPs to improve the public's use of the NHS, NHS England has said. New figures issued to mark Change Day 2014 suggest that more than twelve million GP appointments are missed each year in the UK, costing in excess of £162 million per year.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ailsa Colquhoun
Quelle/Source: Dispensing Doctors' Association, 21.03.2014
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