The CPO of UK start-up Birdie, Raj Tanna, explained that placing people in care homes often leads to a “quick decline” in their health. He told Express.co.uk: “I think the very nature of going to a care home… it’s not your home, it has lots of strangers coming in and out. And I think those homes have now become less home-feeling, very driven by regulation, lots of monitoring and tracking.
“And I think that changes the mental attitude that a person has when they go into the home and therefore causes a decline.
“So in some ways it’s a Catch-22: that person is normally going into that home because they need additional care, either nursing care or they’re just lonely.
“But, clearly, as soon as they go in there’s an impact and there is strong research which shows that there is quite a quick decline at that point.”
Mr Tanna explained that, through the use of apps like Birdie, elderly people could be monitored more closely in their own homes without the need for full-time care.
He added that this could also reduce costs, saying: ““Where we see an opportunity is, at the moment, we have maybe one or two visits a day that are happening at a certain cost and that’s a very different cost base than if someone is having 24/7 care in their home or a nursing home.
“Typically when people have to go to that next stage or have an ailment, they go to hospital, they come back, they get that 24/7 care and after a period when they’ve settled back into their life there’s no need for that 24/7 care.
“There’s just no other way to monitor this individual.
“And so we see an opportunity to use technology to provide some of the monitoring.
“We want to have the industry shift away from a certain number of hours done every day to having a fully-fledged service which includes the monitoring and could involve some third party services such as food being delivered or loneliness services coming in.
“We want to share the burden amongst more of the community and more of the family than is currently done.”
According to, a report by healthcare specialists Laing & Buisson in 2018, care homes costs can range from £27,000 to £39,000 per year for a residential care home and up to £35,000 to £55,000 per year if nursing is required.
One care home in Oxfordshire, Rush Court, costs an average of £1475 a week.
The 48-bed house, which has its own manicured grounds and offers personal and nursing care.
Spokeswoman Una Farrell said: “Our fully-qualified nursing staff provide dedicated care 24 hours a day. Nursing care goes beyond the everyday welfare of our residents to include such things as provision of post-operative care and specific nursing support for chronic illness and palliative care.
“We strive for it to be a home from home for our residents. It provides the highest level of service and facilities, with hospitality service that you will find in a top quality hotel.”
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