The development of virtual wards is an evolution of existing care and support provided to patients at home. BSNA member companies are safely caring for an increasing number of patients in the comfort of their own homes who would traditionally have been cared for in hospital.
NHS England has committed to fund the Virtual Ward model of care with a long-term commitment to achieving 40-50 virtual beds per 100,000 of the population by December 2023. The 2023 NHS urgent and emergency care (UEC) recovery plan scaled back the ambition to 10,000 beds overall by Autumn 2023, making the original 40-50 per 100,000 target a longer-term objective. The aim is to release inpatient bed capacity and increase the number of people who can receive hospital-level care at home.
Virtual wards have also been suggested as a solution for other issues in health care provision beyond reducing capacity pressures, such as improving patient experience and personalised care, reducing risks associated with being in hospital and saving costs.
The expansion of virtual wards – particularly with a focus on older patients with long-term conditions – and those with complex nutritional needs, presents an important opportunity to ensure patients are receiving the high-quality nutritional care and support they need while on a virtual ward and to build on existing, successful, approaches to providing healthcare in the home.
The New Labour Government have also committed to a policy of the NHS moving to a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier, with resources moved to primary care and community services.
A key question for the health service is how to develop a realistic approach to increasing out-of-hospital care closer to and in the home, recognising the diversity of existing models. For the NHS leadership, there is a need therefore to set out what outcomes should be prioritised. This includes how these should be measured and how can health and social care services work together and in partnership with the third and commercial sectors to implement effective models of healthcare in the home that recognise the needs of different ICB areas.
Virtual wards represent an evolution of care that is already being provided to patients in their homes, with healthcare in the home and homecare services well established across the UK. Over the last twenty years, BSNA members have provided nutritional care and treatments including tube feeding, parenteral nutrition, Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) and chemotherapy at home. Working in partnership with the NHS and other partners, our members have worked to deliver treatment and support to thousands of patients so that they are empowered to manage their condition and live their lives to the full.
With their depth of knowledge and expertise, BSNA members seek to work with NHS partners and support the expansion of both healthcare in the home and the development of virtual wards across ICS areas, with the patient at the heart of service delivery.
The BSNA ‘Healthcare in the Home’ event offers an opportunity for attendees to hear from system leaders and independent partners on:
- Future priorities for the development of healthcare in the home services and meeting patient demand
- How effective partnership working between NHS and the independent sector is supporting the development of healthcare in the home services, co-designed for local areas and centred on the needs of the patient
- How these partnerships can help shape the future of ‘virtual’ healthcare delivery within the NHS.
Attendees can also contribute to the discussions and share insight on challenges being faced in implementing the programme across ICBs and how partnership working can help scale up the development of virtual wards for the benefit of patients and the health and care system.
