Key messages

Dr Vin Diwakar, medical director for secondary care and transformation and joint SRO for Virtual Wards at NHS England, delivered an update on the national plans for delivering virtual wards and provided insight on the latest developments. You can access the slides from the event here. 

During the event, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and share their views on the impact that virtual wards are having across the health and care sector. Headline reflections from these discussions are captured below:

Critical success factors for virtual wards include:

• clinical leadership and governance
• a competency-based approach
• integrated ICS and place-based working
• remote monitoring technology and wider digital platforms
• and an incremental approach to improvement and growth.

Considerations impacting the delivery of virtual wards include:

• the important role of social care and the impact of limited social care capacity
• challenges posed by the workforce shortages seen throughout the health and social care sector – the opportunity for mutual aid and resource sharing between providers was discussed
• the difficulties of demonstrating the benefit of virtual wards on A&E attendance given the busier than normal summer and challenging winter periods
• the need for sustainable, multiyear funding for virtual wards as a part of the core service offer

Useful resources

• Access NHS England’s virtual wards supporting guidance for ICS leaders here.
• Read the Virtual Ward and Urgent Community Response Capabilities Framework from Skills for Health here.  
• The NHS England virtual wards homepage signposts to further resources and the FutureNHS workspace.