The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting capacity issues within the health service mean that the approach to the delivery of health and care services is fundamentally changing.
Over recent years there has been a rapid growth in the virtual healthcare market and the use of remote monitoring to care for patients in their own homes instead of in hospital. Post-Covid however, home monitoring has accelerated and virtual wards have emerged.
Now virtual wards are being developed to deliver care for patients at home who would otherwise have to be treated in hospital by enabling earlier supported discharge and providing alternatives to admission.