7 April 2011

Hi.

Attended the latest regional forum meeting today - this time in Cardiff. Presentations included one from Mark Etherton of Buying Solutions raising awareness of the telecare and telehealth procurement framework. Use of the framework has been low so far but Mark indicated that activity was increasing. It will be interesting to get our own members take - both providers and purchasers -  on whether they have seen a similar change. Lee Davis gave a good outline of activity underway within the Welsh Assembly Government. I had a good meeting with Lee the previous day on the current priorities of the TSA and also how we will be taking forward work with the Government following the budget announcement on assisted living.

The interactive session on membership news brought several announcements from the supply members on new developments, but news was disappointingly limited from service providers - perhaps the latter was a reluctance to shout from the rooftops rather than a reflection of the current situation.

Interestingly discussion on the call handling KPI in the Telecare Code of Practice was similarly muted - nothing like the level of debate generated at the York forum - though several service providers did comment on the challenging nature of the KPI, particularly when external factors like the heavy snowfall before Christmas created difficulties for staff actually being able to get to work. One service provider had even hired four wheel drive vehicles to get staff in, and also utilised highways vehicles. A case of good improvisation. Marian re-confirmed that external issues such as this were taken into account by the auditors provided they were highlighted in the exceptions reporting.

I needed to leave the forum early to catch a flight to the Med-e-Tel conference in Luxembourg so missed the last presentation from Carmarthenshire County Council on new developments in telecare and telehealth delivery - but as always the presentations will be on the website. The Med-e-Tel conference is mainly of an academic nature with speakers attending from around the world and with a focus on telehealth. It should be a good opportunity for me to promote the TSA and network with other delegates on developments in the UK. I will report back on the conference in my next blog.

Regards

Trevor Single