What are virtual wards?
Virtual wards are rapidly becoming a core component of NHS care delivery. Designed to provide hospital-level care at home, virtual wards combine remote monitoring technology with clinical oversight to support patients who would otherwise require inpatient admission. While the concept gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has since evolved into a sustainable, scalable model of care that’s being embedded across Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) throughout the UK.
How do virtual wards work?
In practice, patients on a virtual ward are monitored using a combination of digital tools and structured clinical pathways. Depending on the condition, patients might submit vital signs and symptom data via apps, web portals, text messaging, or automated phone calls. This data is reviewed by a clinical team, who maintain regular contact and escalate care if deterioration is detected. Importantly, patients are selected based on agreed criteria to ensure they are clinically appropriate for home-based monitoring and intervention.
What are the benefits of virtual wards for clinical teams?
For clinicians, virtual wards represent an opportunity to deliver proactive, targeted care. They support earlier discharge — particularly valuable for those with long-term conditions such as COPD, heart failure, and frailty-related conditions. As pressures on inpatient capacity continue to mount, this model is helping to improve flow across acute and community services.
Virtual wards are also enhancing workforce productivity. By shifting suitable elements of care into the home and using digital triage to identify patients who require more intensive input, clinicians can direct their time where it is most needed. This not only supports more efficient caseload management, but also helps mitigate the effects of workforce shortages.
What are the benefits of virtual wards for patients?
Patients typically recover more effectively in familiar surroundings, and those on virtual wards often report increased confidence in managing their health, greater autonomy, and higher satisfaction with their care. Clinically, early intervention enabled by regular remote monitoring can lead to better outcomes and reduced escalation to crisis care.
Conclusion
As ICSs continue to develop new models of care, virtual wards will play a key role in supporting more integrated, digitally enabled services. Their success depends on clear clinical governance, robust pathways, and digitally inclusive solutions that work for all patient cohorts.
Virtual wards are not a replacement for inpatient care — they are a reconfiguration of it, designed to deliver safe, personalised, and effective care in the least restrictive setting. For the NHS to meet future demand, scaling this model safely and consistently will be essential.