Virtual wards, also known as Hospital at Home, provide numerous positives and allow patients to be cared for in their own space. But how much of a part will they continue to play in NHS treatment?

Virtual wards offer numerous benefits, including increased access to medical services, especially for remote or underserved areas, reduced travel time and costs, enhanced convenience and flexibility for patients, and the ability to monitor chronic conditions effectively.

While some patients and staff think they are being introduced at the risk of removing the human element of healthcare, others see it as a stepping stone to the positive benefits of technology in healthcare.

But let’s go back to the beginning: what actually are virtual wards?

Virtual wards (also known as hospital at home) allow patients to get hospital-level care at home safely and in familiar surroundings, helping speed up their recovery while freeing up hospital beds.

Patients on a virtual ward are cared for by a multidisciplinary team who can provide a range of tests and treatments. This could include blood tests, prescribing medication or administering fluids through an intravenous drip.

The use of virtual wards was introduced into everyday use by the NHS during the pandemic.

This helped to avoid unnecessary face-to-face meetings, especially in medical settings.

What are the benefits?

There are several ways that virtual wards can make the lives of patients and staff easier.   For example, they allow patients to stay in their own space without having to receive all of their treatment in hospital. This means they can spend essential time with family and friends in the comfort of their home, instead of adhering to visiting hours and often feeling isolated from their loved ones.

Patients on virtual wards wear sensors which update clinicians in real time, helping the remote management team to intervene sooner and ensure the patient receives the same quality of care as they would in hospital.

As well as this, virtual wards free up hospital beds across the NHS to ease the worrying issue of bed occupancy.

Some people on virtual wards may avoid a lengthy hospital stay, which means higher priority admissions can be prioritised and waiting times can be reduced.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester Local Care Organisation is one of the hospitals who have said virtual wards have been a success.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, 3,849 people in Manchester and Trafford were helped by the service.

Mark Cubbon, group chief executive of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Hospital at Home is changing people’s lives, providing them with better access to care in the comfort of their own home.

“It helps people avoid admission to A&E and makes safe discharge back to the patient’s home easier. We are committed to deliver care closer to home, when it is possible to do so. We’re incredibly proud of its success so far and the lives it has changed.

“Hospital at Home is a collaboration between our hospital and community teams working closely with GPs and our primary care teams. Our teams across Manchester and Trafford have made it their mission to improve the care and experience for our patients, something we are, and will continue to, achieve.”

What are the challenges? 

While there are numerous pros that are attributed to virtual wards, there is also a negative side to the service.

One of the biggest issues with the Hospital At Home scheme is that not everyone has access to the right technologies or is digitally literate enough to use it efficiently. While the number of internet non-users has declined over time, in 2018, 10 per cent of the adult UK population were described as ‘internet non-users.’

Even though the majority of people do use the internet for essential tasks, many people in the UK do not have a stable internet connection or do not feel confident at operating smart devices on their own.

As well as this, the number of staff available for the service has caused challenges for virtual wards.

New healthcare ventures often need new staff, so that’s not too problematic, but the NHS has been facing a staff shortage.

NHS England admitted that in the case of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust there were issues of care coverage. This resulted in out-of-hours patients being managed by the existing healthcare pathways.

Do patients and staff like it? 

In March 2023, the Health Foundation commissioned a survey of 7,100 nationally representative members of the public (aged 16 years and older) and over 1,200 NHS staff members to explore what people think about virtual wards and what factors will be important for making sure they work well.

They found that the UK public is, overall, supportive of virtual wards (by 45 per cent to 36 per cent). But this support is finely balanced – with a further 19 per cent unsure whether they are supportive or not.

Support for virtual wards is higher among disabled people and those with a carer – groups that typically have greater health needs and who might therefore be expected to be more intensive users of virtual wards.

Nearly three-quarters of the UK public  are open to being treated through a virtual  ward under the right circumstances, while 27 per cent said they would not be – suggesting that, if implemented well, virtual wards should be acceptable to a large majority of service users.