Hospitals plan more access to virtual wards

Virtual wards allow hospital patients to be monitored from home

The trust which runs New Cross Hospital will discuss its plans for care over the next 12 months this week, including increasing access to virtual wards that allow patients to be monitored from home.

The City of Wolverhampton Council's health scrutiny panel will look at the performance of its local health trust in a meeting on Thursday.

The report to be considered has looked at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust's (RWT) progress on 2023-24 objectives, and outlined plans for the forthcoming year.

Also taking into account staff and public views, it highlighted achievements made in delivering care, but acknowledged further improvements were needed.

According to the Quality Account report, the trust recognised it could improve in key areas such as cancer diagnosis and referral to treatment times, as well as staff retention.

Looking ahead to the next year, it outlined RWT's plans to further roll out virtual wards, in which patients are reviewed daily by clinicians through home visits or video calls.

The NHS is increasingly introducing virtual wards to support discharged patients and free up hospital beds, with paediatric and respiratory wards among those already operating in Wolverhampton.

Regarding cancer treatments, RWT has pledged to increase and prioritise diagnosis and treatment capacity and increase the percentage of cancers diagnosed early, in line with a 75% NHS ambition.

It also said it would implement pathway changes for lower gastrointestinal, skin and prostate cancer.

In addition, the organisation aims to further involve patients and families in care decisions and ensure people from minority groups are not discriminated against.

The trust runs New Cross, West Park and Cannock Chase Hospitals.