Hearts and minds need to be won over ‘virtual ward’ system, say Shropshire health chiefs

More than 2,000 patients have been treated in Shropshire through the ‘virtual ward’ system since it was introduced.

The Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom) says that they are ‘on course’ to meet their NHS England target of having 250 ‘virtual ward’ beds by December.

Patricia Davies, chief executive, says that the scheme has had a ‘phenomenal’ success rate. She said: “A really important statistic, not one patient has been re-admitted to the acute trust. It’s phenomenal.”

Julie Roper, clinical lead for virtual wards, says that they need to change perceptions around the scheme and that the ‘virtual ward’ name was ‘quite misleading’.

She said: “That’s one of our biggest challenges at the moment, to change the thought process and flip that. Patients can be safely cared for and treated in their own home.

“It’s about trust and the more patients we treat who don’t bounce back into hospital, it’s about winning those hearts and minds of people.

“There is lots of discussion around the name ‘virtual ward’ and the difficulty that we’ve got is that it’s an NHS England mandate so we are limited in what we can do to change the title.

“We’re very clear that patients will be seen face-to-face and in their own home. It’s quite misleading, the title.”

A video was presented during last week’s Shropcom meeting which shared the experiences of two patients who had been cared through the virtual ward.

One patient said that the virtual ward has saved her ‘multiple weeks’ being treated in hospital which she says is ‘life-changing’ physically and mentally.

A second patient who had suffered three months of chest infections said that the ‘virtual ward’ allowed him to be looked after at home.

Mrs Davies says that they are now preparing to increase the patients using the ‘virtual ward’ system.

She added: “We have lots of patients on the wards who are on the frailty pathway which covers multiple condition specific pathways.

“We are about to finalise our heart failure pathway which will be absolutely massive. We’re already seeing patients with heart failure starting to filter through.

“We’re working really closely with the acute trust and heart failure teams. We’re able to draw on the expertise of our acute colleagues and have that collaboration to be able to develop the pathway in the best way for patients.”

Mark Goodfellow, digital clinical lead for virtual wards, emphasised that the technology available does not replace face-to-face care.

“If the patient is unable to use the technology then we can do things in other ways,” said Mr Goodfellow.

“When people hear virtual ward they think virtual reality and virtual technology. It’s about supporting and enabling the care and not replacing the care that you can give.

“Technology will never replace a face-to-face visit by a healthcare professional, but it can support and free up time for the professional staff or the patient. If you struggle with technology then we’ll make adaptations to still provide you with that service.

“Video consultation we’re not doing a great deal with, but we did have a 65-year-old yesterday who wanted a video consultation because he didn’t want our staff to come and see him while he was infectious.

“The demand is there from patients, it’s just supporting them and meeting that at their level.”