Gateshead Care Call Gateshead Council, Regent Street Gateshead NE8 1HH Tel: 0191 478 7666 Gateshead Care Call How are we doing? April 2012 - March 2013 October 2013
Contents Welcome Welcome 3 Care Call in Gateshead 4 How are we doing? 6 Our success so far 8 How are we going to improve? 10 Your experiences case study 11 Welcome to Gateshead Council s Care Call Annual Report. This is our first report which describes the delivery of Care Call services in Gateshead over the last twelve months along with our priorities and plans for the future. In Gateshead we re committed to improving the quality of life for all our residents and we listen to what people tell us about their experiences of services that they receive. We work with people who use our services as well carers, health partners, voluntary sector groups and public service/fire brigade to help us to provide services to residents. This report is a way for us to show you what s happening to Gateshead Care Call and how we are trying to improve our services to continue to meet the needs of residents. It also lets us share with you our priorities and plans for the future. Our key aims are to: Help older, disabled or vulnerable people live safely and independently in their own home Provide emergency cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Your views and comments make sure we re delivering the services you need. If you could like to comment on what we do, or about any of the information contained in this report, contact us on 0191 478 7666. Councillor Michael McNestry Cabinet Member Adult Social Care 2 3
Care Call in Gateshead We currently have over 8,500 customers registered with Gateshead Care Call and we are dedicated to providing excellent customer service and reassurance to those connected. In 2012 we successfully attained the TSA accreditation for the service, which stands for Telecare Services Association. This is a national organisation which has a code of practice that ensures the service that is provided is reliable and of a high quality. This will assure customers, their families and carers of the reliability of what Gateshead Care Call provides. We have a Service Improvement Group that meet on a regular basis to look at how we can improve the services we deliver across the council and The Gateshead Housing Company. Last year we worked with the group to review our communication, design and literature. We will be working with the group to monitor performance against the TSA standards over the coming months. If you are interested in joining please contact us on the number shown on the back page. We bid for regional funding to look at using technology to support our customers with dementia and their carers. Ten local authorities took part in the project led by Gateshead, which looked at using a tracker to find clients if their carers or families became worried about them. This enabled those customers to continue to live a healthy and independent life but with the added security of being found if they didn t return home. We have been working with the Primary Care Trust to pilot the use of remote medical monitoring within patient s homes. Patients are able to check various vital signs in the comfort of their own homes and their community matrons go on line each day to ensure that the readings are okay. We are dedicated to providing excellent customer service. 8,901 customers registered with Gateshead Care Call 4 5
How are we doing? We want Gateshead Care Call to help older, disabled and vulnerable people to live safely and independently in their own home. The following outcomes reflect the period between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013. Gateshead Care Call s monitoring service handled the following calls: Gateshead Care Call processed the following referrals: 2 Days 99% of referrals were processed within 2 working days 98% 99.75% calls answered within 1 minute calls answered within 3 minutes Gateshead Care Call has staff on duty to respond to emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Last year the following mobile responses were made: Line Utilisation We have to ensure that we always have 50% of our alarm lines available to take calls. Last year our performance meant that we had 100% of lines available. 100% lines available 5 Days 1 Day 100% of referrals were processed within five working days 100% service user profiling within one working day 96% 100% within 45 mins within 1 hour Last year the following installations were made: 341 free telecare systems were installed to the over 80s over a 12 month period 100% of urgent installations were carried out within two days 100% of urgent installations were carried out within five days 99% of non-urgent installations were carried out within 15 days 99% of non-urgent installations were carried out within 20 days 100% of enhanced telecare systems were installed within 15 days 100% of enhanced telecare systems were installed within 20 days Repairs to Gateshead telecare systems last year included: 100% of critical repairs to telecare equipment were carried out within 48 hours 100% of critical repairs to telecare equipment were carried out within 96 hours 100% of non-critical repairs to telecare equipment were carried out within 10 working days 100% of non-critical repairs to telecare equipment were carried out within 15 working days 100% quality checks were completed 6 7
Our success so far We have been able to continue to provide our services to those people who are older, vulnerable and disabled despite current financial strains. Further investment was made in updating the technology in the control room to ensure that we have the fast, efficient and reliable kit to support the calls made by our clients, this included the introduction of new voice recording system. As part of the council s commitment to providing low cost solutions to our ageing population to help them remain living independently and safety in their home, free telecare was offered to anyone over 80 for a six month period and 341 people joined the scheme. A programme of improving and updating telecare systems through the council s capital programme began. This investment will enable systems to be adapted to meet the continuing needs of residents in Gateshead. All staff within Gateshead Care Call were trained by the Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade to perform home safety checks. Each year when customers are visited by a member of the team they will get a free home safety check to identify any potential fire safety issues. If they don t have a smoke detector we will give them one free of charge provided by the fire brigade. All calls received by Gateshead Care Call are voice recorded. Quality checks are completed monthly to ensure operators are providing the best possible response and service to customers. Our target was 90% service satisfaction. The survey results show we achieved 99.9%. 99.9% satisfaction for installation, monitoring and response 61 This year we have received 61 4 compliments and only 4 complaints Your feedback is always welcome. 8 9
How we are going to improve Your experiences We want to: Continue to look at the use of technology to support customers who self manage their long term conditions and reduce admissions to hospital. Ensure that the use of services like Gateshead Care Call and technology continue to play a significant part in the council s commissioning strategy. Increase the number of people being support by Gateshead Care Call and telecare. Train colleagues to understand what telecare is available to support residents. Ensure over the next five years equipment is appropriate for use and where required, upgrade to offer more modern, reliable and flexible solutions. Work with partners to develop systems capable of raising alerts to behaviour changes to ensure that we can prevent those changes from becoming significant and prevent admissions to care. We have already installed a system within our new extra care development at Angel Court in Harlow Green. Working to support the Department of Health s 3 Million Lives programme. The Department of Health believes that at least three million people with long term conditions and/or social care needs could benefit from the use of telehealth and telecare services. Implemented effectively as part of a whole system redesign of care, telehealth and telecare can alleviate pressure on long term NHS costs and improve people s quality of life through better self-care in the home setting. How Telecare helped one customer At 89 years of age, Stanley Reed still likes to pop out to his local shop to pick up a newspaper, just as he has for decades. But after a stroke which has affected his speech and made communicating difficult, his family were naturally concerned for his wellbeing when he makes his daily pilgrimage. But how could his family, and carers, always know that he was safe without reducing his independence or restricting him to his home? Until recent years there would be no answer, but now Mr Reed has become one of a growing number of people for whom help is always there, even though that help is mostly invisible. Sensors on his door are triggered when Mr Reed s carer leaves and staff at Gateshead Council are alerted when he leaves his home. If there are any problems, staff can make sure that Mr Reed is back at home safe and sound as quickly as possible. Then there s the Buddi system that is attached to Mr Reed s keys. Whenever he leaves home, his keys act as a tracking device so that if he ever gets into difficulty, his carer or even his family can use the system to bring him back to safety with backup being provided by the council s 24/7 emergency response service care call. 341 free telecare provided for over 80 s Last year alone 1,017 falls were dealt with by Telecare Our systems can prevent accidents as well as speed up responses. 10 11