Milestone reached as virtual ward cares for 1000th patient

Hospital level care has been delivered to one thousand patients in the comfort of their own home thanks to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s virtual ward service.

First launching in late 2022, the service helps reduce hospital admissions and allows certain patients to stay at home with their families while being monitored 24/7 by a centralised hub of expert clinicians near Maidstone Hospital.

In a virtual ward, clinical teams use technology such as iPads to talk to people, speaking ‘face to face’ with people or their carers about their condition, and providing clinical advice. A person’s symptoms and condition are monitored in real-time using a special app, as well as wearable medical equipment and devices.

MTW has expanded the service since its launch to care for a wide range of patients in stroke and gastroenterology and advanced the service beyond what is delivered by other trusts, introducing a general ward meaning that any patient with a diagnosis and treatment plan can be cared for on the virtual ward.

Over the last 18 months, the service has also received excellent feedback with 95% of patients rating the service as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.

Patients have commended the service for ‘giving them their life back’ and being able to attend important family events such as birthdays, safe in the knowledge that if they require help, our teams are on hand at the tap of a button, day or night.

Chief Operating Officer, Sean Briggs, said: “the implementation and expansion of our Virtual Ward service has been remarkable and has made a real difference to the experience our patients have.

“Our teams have worked so hard to engage with clinicians across the Trust to ensure as many appropriate patients are identified and referred as possible, while striving to continuously innovate and improve the service and create a model that really sets us aside from other organisations.

“Not only is the service receiving brilliant feedback from patients and their families, but it is also having an enormous impact on our services. This has included helping to reduce the number of attendees in busy areas such as our Emergency Departments, and it is also helping freeing up capacity across our sites, reducing the need for physical hospital visits.”