Home Local News Care Continues at Home Thanks to Wigan’s Virtual Ward

Care Continues at Home Thanks to Wigan’s Virtual Ward

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Karen Downs
Karen Downs

Patients with acute respiratory infections (ARI) and acute heart failure, have been receiving treatment from the comfort of their home thanks to a pioneering virtual ward at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL).

In Wigan, the virtual ward model is supporting people to return home earlier, as specialist staff continue to administer the care and support they would have received in hospital, to them in their own homes.

The virtual ward hub will be just one of the key initiatives that will help the Trust to manage potential winter pressures more effectively and will support ongoing care of patients safely.

Explaining how the virtual ward works, Karen Downs, Divisional Lead in Digital Care for WWL, said: “We fit the person with a wearable remote monitoring device and a blood pressure cuff, give them some scales and a tablet and show them how to use it. All these items have an internet connection, so the person doesn’t need internet at home for it to work, and their health data is continuously monitored based on how they look, how they feel and their symptoms via a daily video call, alongside the feedback from the devices.

“Once the person is home with their medication and equipment, we will make a further assessment and agree on their care going forward.”

Each patient on the virtual ward has personalised care that may include certain goals that are agreed between them, their family members or carer and their consultant.

In February 2022, WWL’s virtual ward team supported 20 people with acute respiratory infections across Wigan. This has since risen to over 137 patients being seen and treated, meaning a total of 51 per cent of WWL’s virtual ward patients have been supported by the Trust’s ARI virtual ward, saving 1,256 acute bed days between February and September 2022. In addition, the virtual heart failure pathway has provided a total of 49 patients with early supported acute heart failure care in the home, saving 376 acute inpatient bed days.

From their feedback, patients have reported feeling a benefit from having more one on one time with their team and their clinician, making them feel valued and heard.

One patient said: “It is an excellent service, there is someone at the end of a phone or video when I needed them, answering any questions I had, I just felt safe.”

Virtual ward patients have also reported feeling that they have more privacy, something to value when discussions are taking place about how to manage their health in the long term, better sleep, and, overall, WWL has seen a low rate of these patients being readmitted to hospital.

Karen added: “Our virtual ward team are very satisfied with the level of care they can deliver virtually and feel that they can care for every person as an individual.  They enjoy the hybrid of using digital channels as well as face-to-face contact. We want to help more people avoid going to hospital in the first place, so the virtual ward model is going to help us to progress and be able to assess and diagnose people in the community, as well as expanding our team to include consultants with other specialties.

“It really is going from strength to strength, and we are currently recruiting to enable us to expand the service even further.”

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