Number of 'virtual' hospital beds in Shropshire to double in bid to reduce number of people on wards

Currently over 100 patients across Shropshire are cared for at home as part of a virtual ward. The wards allow patients to get hospital-level care while at home, freeing up hospital beds.

Patients are reviewed daily by a clinical team and the ‘ward round’ can involve a home visit or take place online.

Just as in hospital medical professionals can carry out blood tests, prescribe medication or administer fluids through an intravenous drip.

Speaking at a Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust board meeting chief executive Patricia Davies said that the Trust are required to have 249 virtual ward beds by December 2023.

She said currently in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin there were over 100 patients on the virtual ward with a current target of trying to reach 118 ‘patients consistently’.

Mrs Davies added that some of the patients have ‘stepped up’ from community care onto a virtual ward, while others have ‘stepped down’ from hospital care.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of step-down patients from the acute trust (Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust),” said Mrs Davies.

“The virtual ward is very much a joint programme of work between ourselves and the acute trust.

“There are some fantastic presentations around the positive impacts that we’ve had jointly on patients by getting them home earlier, not decompensating therefore and being able to treat their acute condition at home.

“Therefore, promoting independence and keeping people well and independent for longer. One of the fears is that it’s providing more workload to primary care.

“In actual fact it’s supporting primary care as that patient is being seen and monitored far more frequently.”

She added that their work was helped by the Integrated Discharge Team (IDT) who ‘look at the proactive discharge of patients.’

“We either scoop patients up in A&E, saying you don’t need to be here and putting them on the virtual ward or something else,” Mrs Davies added.

“If they are complex patients and require admission, tracking them to make sure they’ve got a planned discharge date and that we’re looking to get people home first by providing support.”

Mrs Davies added that the number of referrals to their IDT team is 35 per cent higher than the previous year.

She said that the Trust was ‘committed to support’ a further 475 complex patients per month through their IDT system.

The chief executive added that the Trust have maintained their length of stay within community hospitals and occupancy level.

“We’re seeing more patients come through our community hospitals then we have seen in the last 18 months,” she said.

Mrs Davies highlighted that over 80 per cent of patients who were treated through their community hospitals went home afterwards.

She added that the community interventions reduced A&E attendances by 3,826 and ambulance conveyances by 1,148.

“That is incredible and what we’re doing this year with the virtual ward is looking at industrialising that process even further across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin,” Mrs Davies concluded.

“This is an example of joint integrated working with partners.”