On 20th October, Everon UK, hosted a webinar ‘Myth Busting the Digital Landscape’ in partnership with TSA and Housing LIN, supported by Openreach, TalkTalk and Eseye.
Following the results of the webinar poll, it was concerning to note that half of the webinar participants stated that they’re in the ‘early stages of readiness’ for the digital switchover. This will potentially leave vulnerable residents at risk and highlights significant planning gaps. The other half stated that they’re in ‘the advanced stages’ of transition.
The webinar aimed to support housing and care providers navigate the digital landscape, by getting into the detail of how digital switchover will affect grouped living, individual homes and the impact on vulnerable residents.
This event follows a previous webinar which took place on 22 June and Everon’s breakfast meeting on 21st September, where housing leaders gathered to debate the challenges and potential of the digital switchover. Everon’s next webinar on falls is being planned for the new year.
The session chair, Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive of TEC Services Association (TSA) opened the webinar by reminding us of the importance of moving from analogue to digital – which has been covered in a white paper published by the TSA in 2017. She reassured participants that there is so much work going on in the background to ensure a safe transition and most importantly that vulnerable people are protected. She advocated a proactive, rather than preventative model of care. She stated, ”we need to move to a digital state so that we can share data and make sure it’s getting to the right people to deliver good quality outcomes”.
John Livermore, ALL IP Industry Engagement Manager at Openreach, gave a detailed account of the state of play with the digital switchover, covering off the common challenges and what housing and care leaders need to do now. He said “Openreach is an independent engineering company who look after the premises back to the telephone exchange. The UK’s telephony network was last upgraded in the 1980’s to Digital Telephone Exchanges. This equipment is now failing and needs to be withdrawn”.
He told us that “in 2018 the industry agreed on a 7 year programme ending in 2025 to move all lines from this legacy equipment to new exchange equipment, which would be based on glass fibre technology. We are over 4 years into that programme. We have carried on producing the replacement which is glass fibre in the ground. Openreach’s job is to produce the network. The migration itself is done by each one of the 690 different communications providers (CP). On the day that your CP migrates whatever is sitting on the telephone socket, that device will no longer work.”
He closed his session with a stack warning to the sector, “On Dec 31st, 2025 all lines that rely on copper from the exchange to the cabinet will be disconnected from the exchange equipment. This will remove power from the line and the ability to make voice calls”.
The conversation continued with Phil Cain, Industry Vendor Liaison, TalkTalk, who gave an update on the progress to date and equipment that have been through test labs.
“We are one of over 600 Communication Providers and everyone is at a different stage. We’ve had several manufacturers and signalling suppliers come in to test analogue and digital equipment to make sure there are no issues come migration. In general these things work however there are often some things that don’t and a tweak need to be made to the equipment. I really encourage suppliers to come in and test their equipment either directly connected to the network or to the Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) which is on the back of the route that TalkTalk send out”.
Tim Mulrey, TSA, informed us of a roundtable they had with the minister of innovation back in September, “the key action was around promoting the testing of analogue equipment on digital networks but also getting real world feedback as well”. Results for testing he said will be released shortly. He informed attendees that the TSA are looking to have a repository of information on their website. He concluded with a noteworthy statement, “we don’t recommend analogue over digital.”
Nick Earle, CEO, Eseye, covered off the opportunities for data to transform the care experience enabled by the digital switchover and reinvent business models. He stated that the IOT uses cellular which is why it’s not dependent on the digital switchover. In his words, “this equipment has been around for many years and you don’t need to wait for the switchover. This new model implies that every single thing in the world that can have power will have an IP address and can submit data. What that does, is that it enables providers such as Everon, using AI, to build a personalised behaviour model of a resident at home”. He emphasized the need to create personalised, proactive and pre-emptive care.
See podcast – How IOT is changing the world of remote patient monitoring
Pete Kerly, MD Everon UK, discussed future proofing your digital strategy and moving from reactive to proactive model. He said “the GSM technology has been out since 2007 and the Nordics especially are fully digital and our system has been deployed across Finland, Sweden, Germany as well as the UK now”. He called on the various organizations to swiftly get on with the task to transition from analogue to digital as we only have 26 months to complete the upgrade and there are 1.7m users in the UK who are dependent on this.
Pete highlighted key advantages of the Everon solution stating among others, that Everon is ISO and TSA QSF approved, their solutions require no wiring, are Cloud based – utilising Health Housing and Social Care Data – Open API’s, utilises machine learning and artificial Intelligence to deliver a proactive model of care and are compatible with all Alarm Receiving Centres. Pete stressed that for real impact, the industry “needs to get to people before they have an issue, so the use of AI to identify falls, slumps, staying in bed, UTIs etc. can all be used to design appropriate interventions”.
Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive of TEC Services Association (TSA), shared an update regarding funding relating to housing; informing attendees that there is £300m funding available for new models of care with more details coming in January.
Jeremy Porteus, CE, Housing LIN gave an update on TAPPI demonstrator sites. He thanked Everon for the work they’ve done to help inform and give evidence to the TAPPI work programme. He stated that “the Housing LIN is a UK wide ideas lab and do a lot of knowledge exchange for free to support a better understanding about that integration piece across housing, health and social care”. They work closely with the government and TAPPI has identified a policy gap. In terms of the digital switchover, he stated that it’s not just about telecare but also about thermal comfort, climate change, building management systems, energy efficiency and more.
The speakers closed the event with one key message they wanted attendees to take away:
John Livermore – “Do an audit. Whether you run an estate of products, whether it’s your own personal line or a business you’re involved in, and think about what is plugged into the socket today. And ask yourself the question, if there’s going to be a router there for the first time. How am I going to connect to the router, how do I keep it alive in a power cut and is it going to work reliably for me”.
Nick Earle – “Start off with the experience you want to deliver. And then ask yourself, how could getting more proactive data in a cloud platform enhance that experience and then work that way in”.
Phil Cain – “You’ve got to do something about this, you’ve got to have a plan. That timeframe for doing this is getting smaller and smaller. We started this 4 years ago. We’re now less than 3 years from this happening”.
Pete Kerly – “We shouldn’t be frightened of deploying gsm based solutions. They work well. They’re proven, especially in Europe. We need to be working together to push the boundaries, the change from a 40 yr. old reactive model to a proactive model is the future. We have that objective and want to work with like-minded commissioners who want to adopt and push those boundaries”.
Jeremy Porteus – “We need to move from talking to do the walking. We don’t have a lot of time. 23m homes in the UK of which 1m are housing people who are really vulnerable.
Alyson Scurfield – “Work together, be stronger together, keep the communication and collaboration. For everybody on the call who wants to commission safely there is some commissioner’s guidance through the TSA”.
To watch a recording of the Webinar “Myth Busting the Digital Landscape”, access the slide deck or to learn more about our speakers, click the link.
Everon UK have excellent and longstanding relationships with many Local Authorities, Housing Associations and Service Providers; many of whom are rapidly progressing with their analogue to digital service transformation and are enjoying the flexible benefits of Everon’s Digital Grouped Living solutions.
Many of our supply partners choose to place their call handling with one of the UK`s alarm receiving centres, and we are delighted that we can positively assist any commissioners planned transformation.
A structured testing process will be planned and completed, which will include the compatibility testing of all main features of the Everon UK Digital service.
Once we have successfully tested and approved the UK alarm receiving centre, they will be added to our Approved Connectivity Partnership list, along with their contact details, in order that Everon supply partners can see who to contact when considering their monitoring options.
Everon’s “Approved Connectivity Partners”
We are expanding our list of Approved Connectivity Partners, if you would like to become a potential provider of call handling to Everon`s supply partners, please contact:
lee.balfour@everon.net richard.hosier@everon.net
Sales Director Head of Product Development
On the 13th of October 2022 Peter Kerly, Managing Director of Everon UK attended the SEHTA (South East Health Technology Alliance) Med Tech Expo and Conference.
Everon UK are pleased to be a part of the network of innovators, suppliers, and academia, whom we will collaborate with to drive and design our Telehealth service enhancing our current social care offering. www.everon.net
The Expo & Conference’s keynote speaker was Roy Lilley* (NHS Writer, Broadcaster, and commentator).
Roy provided some shocking facts:
This raises questions around patient safety.
On the same day, the Metro reported that the NHS patient waiting list has reached over 7,000,000 for first time ever and the queue is growing. *
Is there no better time than now for the NHS to commission technology that improves patient experience, delivers care and support to the right patient at the right time, the right location and reduces the NHS carbon footprint which currently contributes the same levels as Sri Lanka*
Remote vital signs along with solid data on AI and machine learning, will allow the delivery of appropriate interventions which will provide enormous benefits to both Primary and Secondary Care pathways.
To achieve benefits such as the reduction of unplanned visits to GP’s, A&E and subsequent bed days; there needs to be a change of mindset within the Government and the NHS. They need to work collaboratively with Med Tech companies that have the solutions ready to deploy.
Everon UK will be utilising the expertise within the SEHTA membership to showcase our innovative and adoptable solutions whilst making sense of the complexities surrounding health and social care delivery; as well as the clinical challenges the NHS currently faces.
*Roy Lilley – NHS Writer, Broadcaster, commentator and conference speaker | Fab NHS Stuff
*Roy Lilley's NHSManagers.net e-Letter Podcasts on Apple Podcasts.
*Guest post: Calculating the carbon footprint of the NHS in England - Carbon Brief
Everon has implemented iotcomms,io’s Alarmbridge to power its digital grouped living solutions. Iotcomms.io enables Everon’s digital solutions to communicate with alarm receiving centers only capable of receiving an analogue protocol.
With the analogue to digital transformation underway, there is urgency for local authorities, housing associations and service providers to move away from analogue connectivity to solutions and products that connect digitally, in order to ensure service users' safety. Hence the need to replace analogue systems with digital solutions that are specifically designed to work on the new digital infrastructures.
Faced with the challenge whereby alarm receiving centres are unable to accept and handle digital alarm calls; thus delaying the analogue to digital transition, Everon’s digital grouped living solution with iotcomms Alarm bridge allows local authorities, housing associations and service providers to deploy digital solutions, that connect to their alarm receiving centres via an analogue protocol.
Everon is pleased to have been supported by PPP Taking Care in integrating its grouped living solution to enable their customer, Cathedral charities/St Marys, in connecting their digital equipment to their Tunstall PNC system.
“We are happy that Everon has chosen our Alarmbridge for their modern solutions. The ability to handle both analogue and digital protocols is something we see important to make a smooth migration to a digital offering”, says Gunnar Reinholdsen at iotcomms.io.
“On behalf of St Marys Almshouses ,I would like to thank your whole team for their diligent work. A lot of time and attention has been spent which has enabled us to return to our control centre of choice” says Susan Porter, Scheme Manager at St Marys Almshouses.
For service providers, local authorities and housing associations who want to start an analogue to digital journey, Everon’s digital solutions provide a trusted way forward.
“This has been a demanding, but an exciting project for Everon in Finland and UK to move to completion. Our R&D team in Finland have worked tirelessly to complete this project. iotcomms.io has been a delight to work with. We are so pleased that we have opened the doors for all local authorities, housing associations and service providers to progress with earnest their analogue to digital transformation”, says Richard Hosier, Head of Product Development at Everon UK.
Everon is the European market leader in digital grouped living solutions. Our flexible, wireless, open platform provides personalised, trusted and sustainable solutions that enhance life. We’re excited to work with local authorities, housing associations and service providers who share our passion for Technology Enabled Care.
