Facebook plans to install Portals in thousands of UK care homes
The NHS is in talks with Facebook to arrange for the distribution of thousands of the company’s Portal devices to care homes across the country, according to sources familiar with the matter.
As British care homes put an end to visits from friends and family to stave off the spread of coronavirus, there are worries that residents will suffer from loneliness at a time already marred by gloom and distress. That is why the NHS is planning to deploy Portal, a device Facebook launched in 2018 to facilitate video chat via its Messenger and WhatsApp apps, to help care home residents stay in touch with their loved ones throughout the lockdown.
Facebook was among the technology companies summoned to Downing Street in mid-March for a meeting chaired by government advisor Dominic Cummings and Matthew Gould, CEO of NHS England’s digital innovation branch NHSX, during which companies were asked to cooperate with the UK government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, according to the sources, the NHS is about to launch a pilot in which 2,000 Portal devices will be handed to care homes in Surrey and in a still-to-be-decided northern city – possibly Leeds, Manchester, or Newcastle. Following the pilot, the sources say, the scheme might be rolled out across England, and could involve the allocation of up to 100,000 Portal devices – which according to the source the NHS would receive at a lower price, and with prioritised access. As of November 2017, according to a report by the Competition and Markets Authority, there were 11,300 care homes in the UK, housing about 410,000 residents.
The NHS declined to comment; Facebook declined to comment for the story, but disputed the 100,000 figure. WIRED understands that the government has been asking
care homes – most of which are privately-run – to partake in the pilot, and that an official announcement will be made later this week.
CHD Living, a Surrey-based care home group, had already been independently experimenting with Facebook Portals to remotely connect residents with children and adults who don’t have grandparents, when the NHS proposed it to join the Portal pilot in Surrey.
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