The founder of a homecare software company has made a statement about the current problems with bed blocking in NHS hospitals.
Josh Hough is the founder and CEO of , which has over 600 home care clients in seven countries, produces revenues of over 拢3.5m and has 42 staff.
The firm featured on our HealthTech 50 ranking last year.
Hough said: 鈥淧eople are spending too long in hospital and it would be in the interests of everyone if they were to return home far sooner.鈥�
He explained of the solution: 鈥淎 lot of what is taking place in hospitals could be done at a patient鈥檚 home. However, information necessary for good care isn鈥檛 being shared.
鈥淧eople delivering care in the community need access to patient data currently held at hospitals.
鈥淪imilarly, doctors would greatly benefit from a clear record of the patient, showing what has happened when they were at home.
鈥淭he reason we have bed blocking is because so many people are unnecessarily delayed at hospital.
鈥淲e can unblock these beds and the way to do that is by safely sharing data between the relevant people.鈥�
Hough was born with the rare muscle weakening condition Minicore Myopathy and spent much of his early life in a wheelchair.
‘Growing up in wheelchair drove me to shake up the care business’
He set up CareLineLive in 2014 after his family struggled to get information about his grandfather鈥檚 care.
鈥淚鈥檝e experienced these types of issues firsthand. When I was a child and needed regular medical attention. I had to repeatedly tell medical professionals and carers about my condition.
鈥淚t opened my eyes to what patients have to go through, endlessly repeating themselves while carers and health care staff spend an insane amount of time going through paperwork. 鈥淚n the 21st century we really need to do better.鈥�
CareLineLive is one of the few companies to meet the NHSx requirements to be on the approved supplier list for Digital Social Care Records. It also integrates with GPConnect, enabling access to GP records.