Virtual ward for patients
One Health Lewisham, which provides GP services in south east London, have been delivering a community virtual ward service offering patients the opportunity to receive the care they need from their own place of residence, reducing the need for hospital attendance.
One Health Lewisham, which provides GP services in south east London, have been delivering a community virtual ward service offering patients the opportunity to receive the care they need from their own place of residence, reducing the need for hospital attendance.
The community virtual ward uses modern technology which enables clinicians to continuously monitor patients and provide support remotely. The service has been hugely popular because patients can be comfortable in their home setting, while having good communication and access to primary care.
One of the patients provided feedback, saying: “It sounded daunting at first, especially the technology, but the instructions for the blood pressure, oxygen and temperature were easy to follow, and once someone from the app phoned and talked me though how to input the data into the tablet, then it was easy to do.”
How it works:
Each patient is handed or delivered a monitoring kit, typically comprising of a mobile phone, pulse oximeter, thermometer and blood pressure cuff. In addition to a structured questionnaire, patients are requested to take these readings and send them back to Doccla (the provider of the virtual ward technology) using the mobile phone, up to three times daily.
A multi-disciplinary team of clinicians then monitor patients throughout the day. Patients will usually remain on the platform for up to 14 days. For patients with slightly more complex care needs, face to face visits are available to supplement the virtual ward, as well as established links to other Lewisham-based services. Lewisham clinicians can make referrals into the Community Virtual Ward team by visiting https://www.onehealthlewisham.co.uk/make-a-referral