Wales has committed to increasing its use of telehealth and telecare as part of a plan to improve health and social care in rural areas.
The Welsh Assembly Government this week published its ‘Rural Health Plan’ identifies access to services and integration of services as the two key issues affecting the health of rural communities.
Its recommendations include increasing use of telecare and telehealth so that patients do not have to travel long distances for routine treatment and checks and developing a new ‘rural practitioner’ role to cover services across health and social care.
The plan also puts forward proposals for a network of pharmacies to provide easier access for patients in rural areas and the creation of a rural health innovation fund to help fund improvements.
Health minister Edwina Hart said the geography of Wales posed special challenges in providing effective healthcare for local communities and she said that at the moment patients in rural areas still had to travel for health services.
She added: “This plan fits in with the recent NHS reorganisation which focuses on delivering more care closer to people’s homes, more self-care to help people live independent lives and more joined up services between health and social care systems.”
The plan said use of new technology had an important role in bringing services and information closer to people in rural areas.
The plan states: “There are many innovative developments and technologies that are already being used and these could make an even bigger impact if they were properly harnessed and commissioned as part of a mainstream and integrated system.”
It said home-care monitoring equipment was “relatively under-utilised” and said increased use of telehealth has “huge potential” for rural areas.
Edwina Hart announced the establishment of an expert group to advise on delivery of the plan who remit would include looking at how access to GPs in rural areas could be improved.
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