Across the North West region we now have 14 providers supplying virtual ward services within respiratory, frailty, heart failure and more recently paediatric services and since formal data collection began in April 2022, the services have seen circa 3,755 patients.

Virtual wards allow patients who would otherwise be in hospital, to receive acute care, monitoring and treatment at home. This can have benefits for individual patients, their outcomes, and their family as well as for the flow of patients through the wider health and care system by helping to prevent avoidable admissions and supporting safe and timely discharges.

Virtual wards use remote monitoring technology and home-based care to allow patients who would normally be in hospital to receive the care and treatment they need at home. They offer the opportunity to discharge patients from hospital early or even to avoid patients being admitted to hospital at all. As well as reducing pressure on NHS hospital beds, virtual wards benefit patients by enabling them to be cared for in the comfort of their own homes.

In a recent podcast, Dr Sarah Sibley, Consultant Respiratory Physician at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital reported that the real strength virtual wards brought for her and her team was the opportunity to really use technology and telehealth to monitor patients more closely in their own home, requiring less face to face visits during their care (you can find the podcast here ECIST Podcast Series – New Episode. Introduction to Virtual Wards – YouTube).

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust provide a virtual ward service for patients struggling with respiratory conditions such as COPD and community-acquired pneumonia.  The service benefits older and frailer patients who are particularly at risk of deteriorating further due to the unfamiliar environment and by being admitted to hospital as they often reduce their activity levels and independence. The service has now been extended to patients with heart failure and overall has saved 6,583 bed days since it was launched in 2021.

Patients with acute respiratory infections (ARI) and acute heart failure, have been receiving treatment from the comfort of their home thanks to a pioneering virtual ward at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Between February and September 2022 the service saved 1,256 acute bed days. In addition, the virtual heart failure pathway saved 376 acute inpatient bed days.

At University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, nurses, occupational therapists and advanced clinical practitioners meet with a Consultant geriatrician on a daily basis, as part of a virtual ward service for frail patients.  The service offers an enhanced level of care for patients who are able to be cared for safely at home and there are plans to expand capacity for 150 patients by September this year.

The expansion of virtual wards has been highlighted in the recent national recovery plan for urgent and emergency care, which has set a target to increase utilisation of virtual wards from around 65% to 80% by September 2023 80% by September 2023; and scale up capacity from the current level of 7,000 ‘beds’ to more than 10,000 ahead of next winter.

Find out more

If you want more information about virtual wards there is an on-line network Virtual Wards Network – FutureNHS Collaboration Platform  It brings together providers, systems, clinicians and others involved in establishing virtual wards to support you and inspire innovation.  

This is a place where staff can: 

• collaborate, discuss and share resources and learning  
• engage with colleagues across England and in your region and gain new ideas 
• connect with individuals, ask questions and help others.

You can also join NHS England’s virtual wards weekly community of practice webinars. These sessions are open to all clinicians, wider virtual ward teams, ICS, and regional colleagues with an interest in virtual wards. Sessions take place every Thursday from 12:00-13:00.  Contact england.virtualward@nhs.net to join the next session.

Over the coming months the Communities of Practice will be inviting a variety of clinicians, managers, and other experts to share their learning and experiences to support you with implementing and developing virtual wards. 

In addition, if you have a successful virtual ward story that you would like to share with the Virtual Ward Community, please contact england.nwnhsathome@nhs.net.