This “tell it as it is” video produced by NHS Western Isles, features Diabetes and Heart Failure patients Erin and Chris along with Lead Nurses Jane Macaulay and Debra Vickers discussing their experiences of working with Florence. Western Isles NHS Medical Director Angus McKellar rounds up, explaining that the experience in the Western Isles shows ‘potential for patients to be looking after their health in a radically different way’ with emerging local evidence of ‘real measurable improvements in individual patient care’.
Iain Trayner, Diabetes Service Co-ordinator and Home Health Monitoring Programme Manager at NHS Western Isles, said:
“Western Isles leads the way in use of Flo text messaging to transform patient care”.
“We’ve been quite successful. Although we’ve recently started [Autumn 2015] and the numbers are fairly small at the moment, the impact is quite high in terms of quality of life and prognosis.”
“We have witnessed some excellent results so far and we are looking forward to helping more people improve their self management and confidence when living with a long term condition.”
NHS Western Isles did consider other technology options for home health monitoring, including tablets and Bluetooth-enabled equipment such as scales but Iain said:
“We initially felt the simple way to go, was the best way”.
For more information contact iain.trayner@nhs.net
