Medway Foundation Trust built the multi-specialty Medway SMART Acute Virtual Hospital providing acute-level care in patients’ homes, with 24/7 clinical coverage, consultant oversight and rapid escalation — critical alerts responded to in as little as 12 minutes.

The service launched in November 2025, following a decade of development from traditional hospital at home provision through to digitally enabled virtual wards. It now manages patients across respiratory, neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology, urology, haematology, renal, general surgery and trauma.

In its first quarter, the virtual hospital:

• saved 4,926 bed days, equivalent to 54 inpatient beds per month
• completed 93 to 96% of care episodes successfully, with a readmission rate of 0.6%
• delivered care at £196 per bed day, compared to £303 for a physical inpatient bed, generating £864,000 in savings

The trust protected all elective activity throughout winter with no capacity-related cancellations.

Medway is now developing a transferable framework covering clinical governance, workforce, technology and key performance indicators so any acute trust can adopt and adapt the model locally.

This work directly supports the 10 Year Health Plan’s ambition to shift appropriate care safely out of hospitals and into homes.

Winner of the Delivering Value award at the NHS Excellence Awards 2026.