YP Letters: Digital devices in the home could transform NHS's care

REGARDING Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s significant problems with its pathology IT system, causing the postponement of surgery and appointments (The Yorkshire Post, September 21).

In general, large centralised systems can be positive because they are effective and fast but when they go wrong they can have widespread negative effects.

Pressure on centralised pathology services can be reduced by moving routine testing into clinics or even into patients’ homes. Portable digital testing devices are getting ever more sophisticated, and the latest generation of devices even have wireless connectivity so results can sent direct back to the hospital.

The NHS currently provides 86 million outpatient appointments every year. If patients were always given a digital health option to monitor their health at home instead of needing to regularly visit a hospital, it could transform the way that NHS delivers care.

Hospital visit

From: Mrs M Whitaker, Harswell.

IN 2006, a friend took me to York Hospital for hearing aids; last week we returned there for new ones to be fitted.

The difference that decade has made to the NHS was apparent from our arrival at a large disabled car park with no empty places to our departure three hours later.

The earlier visit had been pleasant and trouble-free and included a visit to the cafe after our 20 mile journey to York. I was left in a wheelchair while the car was parked far away in a high rise car park.

I arrived in cheerful mode, but this was soon altered by 
the swirling crowds of poorly people.

Many wheelchairs, sticks and people made movement difficult, so a visit to the cafe was impossible.

After struggling along busy corridors to the lift we sat in the ENT section, till I was summoned into a tiny soundproof room for my test.

After one hour 20 minutes we left and I sat once more in a wheelchair watching the mass of humanity; a very old lady trying to push her husband, a young girl pushing a pale gaunt sister, a man in dressing gown and pyjamas in a self-propelling wheelchair sitting outside in the sunshine to watch the world go by.

The visit was a real eye-opener and has made me resolve to count my many blessings.