The NHS and Technology - How Care Tech Can Transform the Healthcare System

Easing Pressures, Reducing Waitlist Backlogs, Hospital Admissions and Beyond

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In the face of growing demand, workforce pressure and budget constraints, the health and social care system in England is under sustained strain. The NHS is grappling with long waits, high A&E volumes and discharge delays, while local authorities see rising care-needs, recruitment challenges and budget shortfalls. These pressures demand not only new ways of working, but new tools - and home care technology is emerging as a powerful support mechanism.

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14k NHS hospital beds are being occupied every day by patients who are well enough to be discharged.

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This article explores how remote monitoring technology can support the NHS by helping clear backlogs, reduce hospital and A&E admissions and readmissions and improve the efficiency of the health and social care ecosystem overall.

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The current picture: Why help is needed

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The report “From Passive to Proactive” created with independent economists from Policy Points, explores the combined health and social care system facing crisis. Waiting lists for hospital treatment have reached record levels, social care demands have grown and the NHS workforce is stretched:

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• 800,000 hospital admissions were for UTIs between 2019-2023 - which can be prevented with early intervention enabled by remote monitoring and data insights.
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• 14,000 hospital beds are being occupied every day by patients who are well enough to be discharged.
  
  

• A 10-day hospital stay can cause elderly patients to lose significant muscle mass, so any unnecessary delays in discharge will affect their ability to look after themselves at home.

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In short: the system can no longer rely solely on reacting to crises. The cost (financial, human, and systemic) is too high. 

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Proactive prevention is the way forward, according to experts in health and social care, including Catherine Davies, Director at Digital Healthcare Council and Co-Commissioner on the Technology and Innovation workstream of The Health Foundation’s NHS Productivity Commission:

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“The way forward is clear - we must either commit to modernising social care funding and technology, or we risk a future where the healthcare services people depend on are simply out of reach.”

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How home care technology supports the NHS

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There are a few key areas where proactive home care remote monitoring technology can help alleviate pressures from the NHS and the wider care ecosystem:

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1. Reducing hospital admissions

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Monitoring technology deployed in the home can detect early changes in behaviour, health indicators or environmental conditions (e.g., repeat bathroom visits, low room temperature, reduced mobility) before they escalate into an emergency admission.Lifestyle-monitoring could reduce avoidable admissions.

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One example for this is considering urinary tract infections in older people account for 800,000 admissions in recent years, many of which are preventable through levaraging data insights into a person’s daily routine and wellbeing.

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2. Accelerating hospital discharges and reducing bed-blocking

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When home care monitoring is put in place, hospitals can feel more confident discharging medically-fit patients to home-care settings. Lilli’s remote monitoring in Nottingham has been reducing the average hospital discharge delay by 16 days, freeing up beds and lowering the risk of hospital-acquired complications.

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3. Reducing hospital readmissions

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By continuously monitoring the home environment and behaviours following a hospital discharge, home-care technology helps identify deterioration early. Whether that’s changes in mobility, hydration or daily routines that could flag an underlying issue. Early intervention reduces the chance of readmission and helps keep people stable at home.

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4. Easing workforce and resource pressures

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Having access to remote monitoring and data insight frees up carers’ time, reduces the need for any potentially unnecessary in-person checks, and enables staff to focus on tailoring the care to the individual. 

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The “From Passive to Proactive” report projects that monitoring tech could free up 94 million care-hours between 2025-35, equivalent to deploying nearly 9,700 full-time carers.

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5. Supporting system integration

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One of the persistent issues the NHS and social care face is siloed working. The wider use of home-care technology has the potential to support cross-system data and insight, enabling integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities to plan jointly, act earlier and coordinate discharge, home interventions and community care more effectively.

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Why a shift to technology-enabled care is timely
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• Escalating demand: With the 65+ population growing and care needs rising, the old reactive model cannot cope.
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• Cost pressures: Hospitals cost around £345/day per bed, and each delayed discharge day carries not only financial but health risks, inlcuding muscle loss, infections and increased readmission risk. Proactive home-care tech can save up to £1.2 billion for the NHS over 2025-35, say economists.
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• Workforce shortages: With thousands of posts unfilled and recruitment challenges in health and social care, freeing carer time is critical. Technology provides a lever.
  
  
• System pressures and resilience: The NHS must move from firefighting to prevention. Home care technology is an enabler of that shift, aligning with government policy signals about future sustainable care.

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Practical considerations for deployment:
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• Focus on a proactive model of home care monitoring that identifies changes in behaviour (mobility, sleep, environment, nutrition) rather than one with a reactive or alarm-events based approach.
  
  
• Ensure stakeholder buy-in: families, carers and individuals must understand and be on board with care monitoring, with privacy and dignity built in. If this is a barrier, there are ways in which your tech provider can help you overcome this.
  
  
• Monitor outcomes: track admissions, readmissions, discharge delays, workforce hours freed and bed-day savings to build internal business cases.
  
  

Conclusion
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Home care technology is not a silver bullet, but it is a powerful enabler for relieving pressure on the NHS, improving care outcomes and supporting people to live safely at home. By shifting from reactive to proactive care, health and social care systems can deliver better outcomes at lower cost and with greater resilience.

As the evidence from the “From Passive to Proactive” and “Starting with social care to have a whole system impact” reports shows, there is powerful potential for savings - through fewer admissions, shorter hospital stays, reduced workforce burden and more independent lives. The key now is ensuring that this technology reaches scale and becomes core to how care is delivered, not an optional add-on.

If you’re a provider, commissioner, or local authority looking to make the shift, now is the time to act. Because the NHS cannot afford to wait, and neither can the people it serves.

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To find out more about Lilli’s proactive home care monitoring solution, book a call with our team here: https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/peter-moss1