Chronically ill to be monitored at home in ‘tele health’ drive

The “tele-health” drive will allow vital health checks to be carried out and sent electronically to GPs without the need for the patient to make an appointment or visit a clinic.

Following a successful pilot scheme, Mr Cameron said it will be rolled out across the country to reach three million patients over the next five years.

The announcement came as the Prime Minister unveiled a range of measures designed to boost Britain’s pharmaceutical industry, encourage medical breakthroughs and get life-saving drugs to patients faster.

Speaking in London, Mr Cameron said he wanted the NHS to be “the fastest adopter of new ideas in the world”.

“Just look at our approach to tele-health – getting new technology into patients’ homes so they can be monitored remotely,” he said.

“We’ve trialled it, it’s been a huge success, and now we’re on a drive to roll this out nationwide.

“The aim – to improve three million lives over the next five years.

“This is going to make an extraordinary difference to people. Diabetics taking their blood sugar levels at home, and having them checked by a nurse. Heart disease patients having their blood pressure and pulse rate checked, without leaving their home.

“Dignity, convenience and independence for millions of people.”

He added: “This is not just a good healthcare story. It’s going to put us miles ahead of other countries commercially too, as part of our plan to make our NHS the driver of innovation in UK life sciences.”

Launching the Government’s Strategy for UK Life Sciences, Mr Cameron also confirmed plans for:

A £180m catalyst fund to help speed new medical treatments through the so-called “valley of death” between development in the laboratory and use on patients.

An “early access scheme” to allow patients in the advanced stages of diseases like brain and lung cancer, for whom no other treatment is available, to obtain treatment with experimental drugs and technologies.

A consultation on changes to the use of NHS patient data, which could see more information shared with private healthcare companies and data automatically included in clinical research unless individuals opt out.

A £50m new cell therapy technology and innovation centre in London to help turn scientific discoveries into commercial products to help patients with illnesses like Parkinson’s.

A new app and web portal to help the public participate in clinical trials.

Investment of £10m in a collaboration between the Medical Research Council and AstraZeneca to fund academic research into a broad range of diseases.

Mr Cameron made clear he believes the pharmaceutical industry has the potential to drive growth and to help rebalance the UK economy away from financial services.

The Prime Minister told an audience drawn from the industry that closer collaboration with life science companies could mean giving them more freedom to run clinical trials inside hospitals, as well as access to anonymised patient records.

A new approach to regulation and procurement could speed access to new drugs for patients in the advanced stages of a disease, where no other treatments are available.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham warned Mr Cameron not to “throw away essential safeguards in his desperation to develop a credible industrial strategy”.

Joyce Robbins, of Patient Concern, said many people would be “deeply disturbed” by the notion that their private medical records could be handed to firms seeking new markets.