Virtual wards treat 100,000 in a year

There are 340 virtual ward programmes across England, providing 7,653 virtual beds.

Frimley Health provides acute hospital care to patients in their homes, with 83 per cent of patients estimated to avoid hospital admission. 774 people were cared for between July 2022 and January 2023.

just to the people they directly benefit but also in reducing pressure on wider services.”

The Telehealth Team, run by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, supports around 2,000 patients a day with conditions like COPD, diabetes and heart failure.

According to NHS England, more than 100,000 people have been treated in NHS virtual wards in the last year. 16,000 were treated in January alone.

Virtual wards are used to enable patients to get hospital-level care at home, speed up their recovery and free up hospital beds.

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “The advantages of virtual wards for both staff and patients have been a real game-changer for the way hospital care is delivered and so it is a huge achievement that more than 100,000 patients have been able to benefit in the last year alone, with the number of beds up by nearly two thirds in less than a year.

“With up to a fifth of emergency hospital admissions estimated to be avoided through better supporting vulnerable patients at home and in the community, these world leading programmes are making a real difference not