By Paul Homewood
Call me paranoid – BUT!
The NHS is to use energy smart meters to monitor dementia patients in their homes.
The devices will track patients' daily routines, such as when they boil the kettle, cook dinner or turn the washing machine on.
They will flag up any sudden change in behaviour which could indicate an illness, a fall or a decline in their mental state. The meters will be able to send alerts to family members or carers, who can pop round to check if the patient is all right.
Experts say the devices will enable patients to live independently for longer without going into care, and prevent avoidable admissions to A&E…..
Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University and the Mersey Care NHS Trust plan to carry out the initial dementia trial on 50 patients, beginning in October.
This will test the ability of the meters to monitor patients' health and the general progression of their disease. If successful, the trial will be extended to involve 1,000 patients across four NHS trusts.
The smart meters involved in the dementia study can monitor patients' energy use every ten seconds. They will be connected to a central computer system which will learn patients' daily routines, such as when they normally use certain electrical appliances.
Any sudden changes – such as not boiling the kettle at the same time each morning or turning lights on in the middle of the night – will trigger an alert.
It has often been claimed that smart meters will enable big brother to spy on us, and it has long been denied by govt that this is even possible.
Personally, I always try to steer away from such conspiracy theories.
However, this latest report reveals that the technology is there to do just that.
Monitoring of dementia sufferers may, or may not, be a good thing (though I would have thought a few simple CCTV cameras, linked to relatives' smart phones, would be far simpler and more effective.
But how long will it be before the same technology is used to check not only how much power we are using at peak times of the day, but what devices it is being used on?
And how long will it be before the grid police cut off our power during times of shortage, simply because we dare to use it for frivolous activities, such as cooking our dinner or turning up the central heating?
from Climate Change Skeptic Blogs via hj on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2GhC4WD
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