iPhones and Blackberries could be used to help people with chronic health conditions in Nottingham.

City health bosses are bidding for £250,000 to find ways of using technology for sufferers of such conditions as asthma and dementia.

They want to help them spot the early signs of health problems without having to be taken away from their homes.

Possibilities include using applications on the latest mobile phones to monitor heart rates and blood sugar.

And officials hope to look at set-top boxes, web-cams and text messaging.

NHS Nottingham City Telehealth Project Manager Sally Parker said: "There are different responses and solutions for different groups of people. There is not a one-size-fits-all technology."

The council and the NHS have applied to the NHS Innovation Fund for the money and will find out if they have been successful later this year.

There are currently as many as 2,000 people in Nottingham needing intensive support.

Patients in the city are admitted to hospital 22,000 times a year relating to long-term conditions.

And the number of sufferers is set to increase as the population ages.

The city council and primary care trust NHS Nottingham City are planning to merge two services which help monitor people with long-term conditions in their homes.

Telecare allows 1,500 people in Nottingham to contact a call-centre using equipment installed at home.

The scheme has given monitors to 300 people. Hundreds more could be referred to the service because of the extra capacity created by having a single call centre.

Peter Teer, 62, of Sneinton, has both Telehealth and Telecare installed at his home after being diagnosed with emphysema in 2001.

The lung disease means the father-of-three often struggles to breathe and needs to sit down regularly.

And he makes use of the contact with health call-takers when if he is feeling ill and wife Pat is not around.

He said: "I can press a button if I can't breathe and someone can be on the other line."