Royal Bolton gets funding for iBleep

Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has secured funding of £170,000 from its strategic health authority to implement iBleep.

The trust will be the third in the country to implement the web-based, interactive messaging system. Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust signed a deal for iBleep in September.

The system provides on-call doctors with critical patient information that is gathered from ward-based staff via a wireless or mobile network.

It allows nurses and other staff to send free text and patient observations, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation, and assign a green, amber or red colour to the call according to its urgency.

The observations are converted into an early warning score and algorithms linked to the colour of the call allow clinicians to prioritise the calls they receive.

Clare Blaydon, the ‘hospital at night’ matron for the trust told The Bolton News: “It is an amazing system.

"It means we can respond rapidly to requests in priority order. It will make a huge different to patients and staff.”

A spokesperson for iBleep said much of the money would be used to prepare the trust’s wireless network to support the system.

He also said Salford and Stockport were progressing well with their project, with “some local configuration left to solve.”

“We’re delighted that Bolton has secured this funding to roll out iBleep,” he added. “There is a lot of interest now in the Manchester area, as word spreads of iBleep’s effectiveness in supporting out of hours working.”

Link:iBleep