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NHS Virtual Wards: Hospital Care at Home?
11 Feb
Summary
- Virtual wards offer hospital care at home to ease patient pressure.
- District nurse numbers in England have significantly decreased.
- Some health boards question the scalability of virtual ward programs.
Virtual wards are gaining traction as a strategy to manage hospital capacity, allowing patients to receive acute care in their own homes. This model is favored by patients and has demonstrated positive outcomes. Despite these benefits, the expansion of virtual beds has recently stalled across some English health boards.
Professionals supporting these 'hospital at home' initiatives emphasize their cost-effectiveness and ability to prevent numerous hospital admissions. However, a key debate persists regarding their widespread impact unless implemented on a much larger scale. Concurrently, the district nursing workforce, crucial for home-based care, has seen a dramatic reduction in England, with numbers falling by 43 percent in fifteen years, raising alarms about patient care quality.
