Are UK care homes ready for the telemedicine revolution?

Abstract

The restrictions implemented by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have reawakened discussion surrounding the use of telemedicine in routine clinical practice.1 Nursing home residents have emerged as a particularly vulnerable group, not only with respect to the virus itself, but to the effects of social distancing2 and disruption to the services in place to support them. In working to stop the spread of COVID-19 within their facilities, many homes have found it difficult to sustain the non-pharmacological mainstays of management of delirium and behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.2 Telemedicine, a proposed solution to these difficulties, has been demonstrated to be both valid and acceptable to patients with dementia and care home staff3 but it does not appear to be part of routine practice in the UK.4 We therefore aimed to determine nursing homes’ capacity and enthusiasm for telepsychiatry assessments. The failure to adopt telepsychiatry may therefore be more closely related to factors within mental health services, such as our access to appropriate equipment, than those within nursing homes.