NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has awarded a contract to the virtual care solution Doccla, for its remote management platform aimed at helping patients with long-term health conditions.
The contract covers the installation of the Doccla virtual ward solution, which was chosen for its ability to offer remote support to patients and scalability capabilities which will reportedly help “manage the expansion of patient numbers”. It also integrates with the health board’s “cornerstone clinical systems” in use.
Valued at £307k, the contract was awarded on 8 April. It comes shortly after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reported “good progress on its programme of digital improvements” as part of their wider Digital On Demand plan, in which they have noted that “154 projects are now underway across 12 key areas”. Some key areas of development include the introduction of a remote blood pressure monitoring system, a new digital pathway for dermatology services and a multidisciplinary team app for cancer care.
Virtual wards in health and care: the wider trend
In a similar story, the Black Country ICB also published a prior information notice for the procurement of a remote monitoring and virtual ward platform. They’re looking for a solution to support the delivery of “multi-disciplinary and collaborative health services”, by opening a pre-market engagement ahead of a procurement mid-2025.
NHS England South East recently reported that a total of 175,000 patients have used virtual ward services since April 2022. The latest updates show the “steady growth” of this care pathway with “over 85,000 admissions to virtual wards” across the region during 2024, resulting in an 18 percent uplift since 2023.
In February, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust shared an evaluation of its virtual royal infirmary programme. This included a total discharge of 752 patients from the virtual ward since its launch in 2023, as well as an increase in inpatient bed availability by 6.7 and 11.5 beds per day.
To learn more about virtual wards in health and care, be sure to join our upcoming webinar on virtual wards in practice: approaches and learnings / what does the future of virtual wards look like?With the help of our panel of experts, we’ll discuss a range of approaches to the virtual ward concept, including examples of best practice, challenges, failures and successes.
