Hospitals across Wales are to be given a share of almost £33m to buy new telemedicine equipment and improve patient facilities, Welsh health minister Edwina Hart has announced.
New teleconferencing equipment will link more hospitals across Wales enabling patients to benefit from telemedicine, as well as diagnostic equipment such as an MRI scanners, x-ray and endoscopy machines will be bought with the money.
The money will also be used to enable trusts to carry out minor building alterations and introduce further measures to reduce energy consumption. The funding will be provided by the Welsh Assembly Government, which Hart said was possible because of ‘careful budgeting’.
Full plans for how the money will be issued and guidelines on spending it are yet to be finalised, and the telemedicine equipment will be monitored by the Welsh Assembly, separate to NHS Wales’ IT agency, Informing Healthcare.
Hart said: “The NHS across Wales has seen significant investment in new buildings and equipment in recent years to help improve care for patients and the working environment for staff. The allocation of this £33million will help the NHS deliver better services for patients, including access to diagnostic tests, such as scans.
“Our aim is to provide as many services as close to the patient as possible. The increasing use of telemedicine will reduce the need for patients to travel.”
The minister made the announcement following a visit to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, where she was shown how telemedicine is linking Accident and Emergency and Minor Injury Units and how the funding will enable other hospitals to install this equipment.
Hart added: “It will also help begin to achieve the aims of our Delivering Emergency Care Strategy by increasing the opportunities for patients to be diagnosed through the use of telemedicine, where a patient can present symptoms in one hospital and can be diagnosed by a senior consultant in another hospital through the use of technology to share test results, scans and face-to-face consultation.
“This money will also help us to improve services for kidney patients across Wales, including new equipment at Pembrokeshire and Derwen, Swansea, North West Wales, North East Wales and Cardiff and Vale NHS Trusts. As well as new equipment and minor building work, this money will help the NHS further reduce its impact on the environment by enabling them to recycle more and reduce waste.”
Dr Mark Narain, lead clinician in the endoscopy department at Bronglais, said the improvements would enable him to treat more patients and improve the quality of service.
Hart added the money will also fund minor building work and help hospitals reduce their energy consumption.
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Joe Fernandez