My uncle Bob is seventy eight years old. He has a heart. For years he had to go to the hospital every two weeks. The doctors and nurses would check his weight his blood pressure and his ankles. After that he would come home. Sleep for the rest of the day because the trip to the hospital was very tiring for him.
Then his doctor told him something that I had never heard before. She said that my uncle Bob could do most of the checks at home. A nurse would come to his house. Do the same checks that they did at the hospital. My uncle Bob could stay in his chair. Wear his old jumper. He could even have his cat on his lap.
At first my uncle Bob said no to the idea. He thought that very sick people got to have a nurse come to their house.. My mum talked to him and convinced him to try it. Now my uncle Bob has been doing monitoring at home for almost a year. He has not been back to the hospital once.. He told me last week that he feels like a normal person again.
Clinical monitoring at home is when someone checks on your health over time. They check things like blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen, weight, temperature, breathing and pain. In a hospital they do this all day.. At home it is much quieter. A nurse comes to your house. You use a machine that sends your numbers to your doctor.
My uncle Bob has a nurse come to his house once a week. She brings a blood pressure cuff and a little thing that clips on his finger to check his oxygen. She asks him how he feels and looks at his ankles to see if they are puffy. She writes everything down in a notebook. Then she leaves. The whole visit takes twenty minutes.
Those twenty minutes have kept my uncle Bob out of the hospital for eleven months. Before that he was going to the hospital every six weeks.
You might need monitoring at home if you have a condition that can get bad quickly. Things like heart failure, lung disease, diabetes, epilepsy or if you just came home from the hospital and they want to keep an eye on you.
I know a woman named Sue. She is forty two years old. She has diabetes. She used to have low blood sugar at night and not wake up. Her husband got scared. They got a monitor that checks her sugar all night. If it drops an alarm goes off. Now they both sleep better.
I also know a kid named Liam. He is nine years old. He has epilepsy. He has seizures at night sometimes. His parents got a monitor that detects shaking. It sends an alert to their phones. They do not have to sit up watching him all night
Clinical monitoring at home is for people, young people, everyone in between.
If you have an NDIS plan you can get monitoring funded.. You have to ask for it. The money comes from your Core Supports budget. Under Assistance with Daily Living. You cannot take it from else. It has to be written in your plan for monitoring.
At your planning meeting you need to say why you need monitoring at home. Do not just say you need help. Say something like I have heart failure and my weight can change overnight. If no one checks I end up in the hospital.. My son has seizures at night and we need a monitor to keep him safe.
Bring a letter from your doctor. That is really important. The NDIS wants proof.
Once you have the funding you can find a provider. Some are nurses. Some are equipment companies that rent out monitors.
Let me tell you about a visit with my uncle Bob. The nurse comes on Tuesdays at ten. My uncle Bob is usually in his recliner watching the news. She knocks. She comes in. She washes her hands. She asks how his week has been. He tells her about what he ate or who called him.
Then she does the checks. She puts the clip on his finger. That measures oxygen. She wraps the cuff around his arm for blood pressure. She listens to his chest. She asks if he is more out of breath than usual. She looks at his legs to see if they are swollen.
Then she writes everything in a notebook. She says see you week. That is it.
Nothing dramatic. Just steady.
Some people do not want a nurse at their house.. They live too far away. That is okay. There is another way. Remote monitoring uses machines that send your numbers to a doctor or nurse automatically. You step on a scale it sends your weight. You check your blood pressure it sends that too. Some watches track your heart.
A nurse looks at the numbers from their office. If something looks wrong they call you. You do not have to do anything except use the machine.
I have a friend whose dad uses this. He has kidney problems. He checks his blood pressure three times a day. The numbers go to his doctor. If his pressure is too high the doctor. Changes his pills over the phone. He never goes to the hospital anymore.
I am not going to pretend it is always perfect. Things go wrong. Machines break. Batteries die. A scale gives a number. That is why you need a plan. Know who to call if something stops working.
Sometimes the numbers are wrong. You do not know it. A low reading that makes everyone panic. Actually the machine was just faulty. That is why good monitoring also looks at the person. How do they seem? Are they acting different?
Some people just do not like being watched. It feels like someone does not trust them. That is fair. Talk about it. Maybe do frequent checks. Maybe get more involved so you feel in control.
If you pay yourself home monitoring costs amounts. A nurse visit might be eighty to one hundred and twenty dollars an hour. Renting a scale that sends your weight might be fifty bucks a week. Buying a blood pressure machine might be a hundred dollars once.
The NDIS follows their price guide. For 2025 a nurse for monitoring is seventy to ninety dollars an hour. Equipment is under Capital Supports. You have to ask for it.
Private health insurance sometimes covers monitoring. Call them. Ask.
To start monitoring at home first talk to your doctor. Tell them you want monitoring at home. Ask for a letter that says why you need it.
Second if you have an NDIS plan call your support coordinator or planner. Tell them you need monitoring funding. Show them the doctors letter.
Third look for providers. Search online for home monitoring near me. Call a few. Ask if they do a chat first.
Fourth try it for a weeks. See how it feels. If you do not like it change something. Different nurse. Different equipment. Different schedule.
I already told you about my uncle Bob.. There is another story I think about a lot. A friend of mine has a mum named Margaret. Margaret is eighty two years old. She lives alone. Her family lives in another state. She has heart failure and diabetes. She was going to the hospital every couple of months. Her daughter was scared all the time. Every time the phone rang she thought it was news.
They set up monitoring at home. A nurse visits twice a week. Margaret also has a blood pressure machine that sends numbers to the nurse automatically.. A scale that does the same.
Within three months Margaret stopped going to the hospital. The nurse caught a fluid build up. They changed her water pills. She never got bad enough to need admission.
Her daughter called me. She was crying. She said she had not slept well in two years. Now she does. She knows someone is watching over her mum.
That is what clinical monitoring at home is about. Not just. Numbers. Peace of mind.
If you or someone you love has a condition that needs watching do not wait. Ask about home monitoring. It might be simpler than you think. It might cost less than you expect.
Talk to your doctor. Make the call. You will be glad you did.
My uncle Bob is glad. He is still in his house. Still in his chair. Still watching the news. His cat still sleeps on his lap. He is not going back, to the hospital if he can help it.
That is the point.
📍 Horizon Care Support — helping you access clinical monitoring at home through the NDIS.