Coordinating services closer to home

The virtual ward is a team of health, care and community professionals linked to a specific group of GP practices who work together to coordinate care for people in their local community. The core team includes a GP, service coordinator (ward manager), community nursing, community support workers and the voluntary sector.

The team works together to identify the patients in their local community who will benefit from the virtual ward way of working and then identifies the level of care they need for their needs. The work started as a pilot at Dovercourt Practice off City Road, and has been rolled out to another 21 practices in central Sheffield. Working together to support these patients with complex care needs means we can help ensure that they are supported to stay at home wherever possible and avoid the distress of hospital admissions again and again and often for long periods of time.

For a person with complex health conditions, a virtual ward is about better self-care, self-awareness and confidence to handle common flare ups at home. For GP practices, a virtual ward provides a consistent, active approach to caring for people with the most complex medical and social needs in the community, rather than reacting to problems when they have happen and at a point where it  could lead to multiple hospital admissions. This is good for the patients and good for the NHS.

For more information, please follow this link to the Virtual Ward Fact Sheet.