Health Foundation working paper - What do virtual wards look like in

In this working paper, the IAU analyses aggregate national data on virtual wards to describe what virtual wards currently look like across England and discuss the effects of virtual wards on patients, staff and hospital capacity, as well as the gaps in the evidence. [...] What do virtual wards look like in England? 13 Figure 5a: Frailty virtual wards have more patients with shorter lengths of stay What do virtual wards look like in England? 14 Figure 5b: ARI/COVID-19 virtual wards have more patients with lengths of stay between 5–14 days What do virtual wards look like in England? 15 Figure 5c: Circulatory disease virtual wards have more patients with longer length. [...] According to the Health Foundation’s recent survey, 63% of NHS staff and 45% of the UK public are supportive of virtual wards, and 71% of the UK public are open to being treated through a virtual ward depending on the circumstances. [...] The ages, and likely the severity of illness, of patients differ between the types of virtual wards, and length of stay varies greatly, even within a single type of virtual ward. [...] These data provide information on the numbers of patients on virtual wards at each data collection point, the extent and type of technology enablement in use and the referral routes, discharge destinations and demographic characteristics of the patients.