UK Care Week Review


inspection in one of my services, my staff told me after they’d been inspected – bearing in mind they had been on the front line of two years fighting a pandemic when CQC inspectors were nowhere to be seen – they said that they felt ambushed … The inspectors many, many years ago used to be quite understanding, and used to offer advice … I’ve been going to our inspector, saying ‘these are the challengers, what can you help us do?’ – I got nothing back … So I am an advocate of inspection, but I think it should be a very different inspection process.”


Finally, Jon asked the panel whether


they thought the UK ought to establish an NHS-style National Care Service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the current state of the NHS seems to have put everybody off the idea. “Looking at the NHS in particular,” said Oli, “I’m not convinced that having a national care service is the right answer here.” “If you’ve got to deal with really extreme problems, I think that to find people who are willing to do that, I think you’ve got to put some money on the table,” said York. “As much as maybe we don’t like to admit it, we are a capitalist country and we do revolve around money.


“I don’t think that the state wants to take responsibility for the really complicated people,” he concluded.


Other highlights – and lunch We largely stuck with the Keynote Theatre at this year’s UK Care Week, but we managed to find time to listen to interesting speeches from both Geoffrey Cox of Eden Alternative Training (The Eden model of care; innovative, effective & viable – Business & Facilities Theatre) and Rachelle Mills of KareInn, who discussed The gift of data – our modern legacy at the Digital and Technology Theatre. It was also great to watch and listen to a performance by Our Dementia Choir – a crowd-pleasing experience that made for an uplifting interlude. Lunch, meanwhile, was roast beef with all the trimmings followed by sticky toffee pudding courtesy of the team at apetito at their impressively decked-out restaurant-style stand – certainly one of the most striking (and busy) installations at the show.


as possible but then obviously be more proactive with what we’re doing,” he said. In short, the technology, which


The power of voice activation The final keynote of the day came courtesy of Stephen Cavanagh of Amazon technology partner and healthcare technology solutions provider ASCOM, who took us through The power of voice activation in supporting digital transformation for senior living environments and enabling care staff in what turned out to be a solo presentation after Amazon’s Victoria Day was sadly taken ill. Stephen’s presentation concerned


Amazon Alexa Smart Properties – an integrated solution that uses Amazon’s virtual assistant as the basis for an holistic care tool – a connected platform with voice activation at its core. “What we’ve seen over the last couple


of years is that the biggest demographic increase in utilising voice activation devices is the 65s and older,” Stephen explained. “They’re using it for things such as schedules, reminders, the news, the weather, social interaction, for video conferencing, and really using this as part of their daily routines. “So what we’re finding now is that when


people are going into the senior living environment, they’re expecting this type of technology [to be] available to them,” he continued. “So that they can basically have that same experience from when they’re at home and bringing that into their senior living facility. “But what Amazon is trying to do


is moving away from this being voice activation and actually moving into what they call ambient intelligence. That’s technology that, when you need it, it’s there, but it’s in the background. So again, it fits with what we’re trying to do within the senior living market, which is technology built around personalisation to support personalised care. “We want to enable privacy, dignity, independence, socialisation, for as long


The aim is to roll out a consolidated solution that also incorporates nurse call systems and even the possibility of staff using voice input to update residents’ care records


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incorporates touchscreens as well as voice, can be used by care home residents for everything from ordering meals and communicating with staff and loved ones, to setting events and reminders, all from their rooms. However, this is just the beginning – the aim is to roll out a consolidated solution that also incorporates nurse call systems and perhaps even the possibility of staff using voice input to update residents’ care records. Of course, this gives rise to serious questions of risk and liability for the tech giant.


“At the moment, Amazon are very risk


averse because they don’t want it to be seen as a critical system,” Stephen admitted, “but we believe that, long-term, the voice activation with Amazon and solutions like this could potentially remove the requirement for nurse call systems.” Stephen also raised the possibility of


Alexa being used for vitals monitoring, but again, there are significant legal and risk issues to be overcome.


Currently, the system’s application in a care home environment is also severely limited by its unsuitability for residents living with dementia, but Stephen reckons that Amazon is “committed” to overcoming this. Trials of Amazon Alexa Smart Properties went live at the end of December, and have apparently already seen “positive results”, not least in there having been a marked reduction in unnecessary nurse call events, with non-critical calls being redirected to more suitable recipients. In other words, the tech is being used as a “workforce deployment tool.”


“Alexa – please look after my mum” Ultimately, whether this sort of technology takes off in care homes will depend on the consent of the people who will be using it. As Stephen puts it: “The big thing is getting the buy-in from the family, because they’re going to be the ones providing the reassurance [to the resident] and, actually, they’re going to get a lot of benefits as well; to be able to communicate constantly with them.”


Will families be happy to hand over some of the responsibility for the care of their loved ones to Amazon? Well, given the acute staffing crisis that seems set to plague the social care sector for years to come, perhaps they might not have much choice in the matter.


n www.thecarehomeenvironment.com May 2023


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