A virtual wards service is being extended to support patients with a wider range of health conditions and enable them to receive treatment at home.
A collaboration of local organisations has worked together to put this service in place, including Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB), University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, DHU Healthcare and LOROS, in addition to technology providers Spirit Health and Dignio.
Virtual wards have already been in place for patients with atrial fibrillation and COPD, as well as COVID recovery. But they are now extending this service to cover patients with a broad range of conditions including diabetes, asthma, blood disorders and bowel surgery recovery; they have also committed to adding more conditions as time goes on. They aim to have around 231 patients being looked after simultaneously in the virtual ward service by December.
The extension of virtual and remote technology will now allow more patients to manage their conditions at home with support from clinicians, meaning that they will no longer need to be admitted to a hospital and can return to their own settings quicker. It will also reduce the demand on hospitals by increasing hospital bed capacity.
Dr Gurnak Dosanjh, GP and the ICB’s Clinical Lead for virtual wards, explained the befits of the new service: “This service is a prime example of our ‘home first’ approach to delivering care. Care providers should consider if there are ways that patients can be treated and cared for in their own home rather than in a hospital.”
Explaining how this service links in with the ICB’s overall plans for the future, Rachna Vyas, Chief Operating Officer for the ICB, said: “The virtual wards service is a key part of our winter plans to ensure that people are only in hospital when they really need to be. Since December 2020 when the first virtual wards for Covid patients were established, 1780 bed days have been saved.”
Earlier this year HTN covered how the ICB introduced 16 digital pathways to improve its remote and virtual care model, which can be read in full here.
