Expanding the use of virtual wards to support heart failure patients in Liverpool

New NHS clinical guidance published last month asked local health systems to expand their use of virtual wards (also known as Hospital at Home) to include heart failure patients, in addition to acute respiratory infections, COPD, and frailty care.

It is estimated that around 200,000 people a year are diagnosed with heart failure – the condition accounts for 2% of all NHS budget and 5% of all emergency hospital admissions in the UK.

Allowing patients to recover in the comfort of their own home has been shown to speed up recovery times, with the added benefit of freeing up capacity – since April 2022, over 240,000 patients across the region have been successfully treated this way.

Two NHS trusts in our region, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust have already been highlighted as examples of effective heart failure virtual wards that are already up and running by NHS England.

Dr Rajiv Sankaranarayanan is the Consultant Cardiologist at LUFHT and the Heart Failure Virtual Ward Lead for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and along with partners Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust who provide the telehealth service, his team have already supported more than 500 heart failure patients through the service since it began.

He explains: “Our experience of treating suitable patients with heart failure decompensation at home instead of in hospital and allowing them to be treated by our heart failure specialist teams in the community with the aid of telehealth technology, has shown that it helps with their recovery and improves their outcomes”.

One of those patients is Colette Melia, 66, who said: “It’s almost like having a doctor on tap” and said that treatment from a virtual ward is “a really personalised service”.

The service is also taking pressure off hospital services by allowing patients who'd have typically spent between 10 to 12 days in a hospital bed, to stay at home and receive care remotely instead.

Going into this winter, there are over 400 virtual ward ‘beds’ already available across Cheshire and Merseyside – a number which will be increased to 560 by the end of March 2024, including more heart failure patients.

Further information

Read more about Colette’s experience

Read more on Dr Rajiv Sankaranarayanan’s blog for NHS England