A revolutionary piece of technology has been donated to Watford New Hope Trust (WNHT), to track the health needs of men and women who access their emergency accommodation.

The homelessness charity has received the CommunityPod courtesy of Watford-based company Telehealth Solutions, who specialise in delivering self-monitoring services for people with long-term conditions via touchscreens, mobile phones and tablets.

Sara Crean-Muir, from WNHT, said: "The CommunityPod will help us track the health needs of the men and women who access our emergency accommodation, who are some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

"This will enable WNHT to target health priorities, such as alcohol addictions and mental health issues, which have been identified by Hertfordshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy for 2012-2015.

"The CommunityPod will help us monitor the physical health of rough sleepers with the aim of reducing health crises.

"By pioneering this innovative scheme - we are privileged to be the primary and sole user in the homelessness sector of this technology - we hope to enable our service users to have better access to local health and social care provision."