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May 2023 - Health

45% of UK public is supportive of virtual wards: A survey of the UK public to understand more about how they feel about the expansion of virtual wards has found that 45% are in favour, with 36% not in support and one in five (19%) unsure about whether they are in support or not.

The survey by The Health Foundation polled 7,100 nationally representative people (aged 16 and over) in March 2023 as well as 1,251 NHS staff members. 

Also known as ‘hospital at home’, virtual wards allow people to receive treatment and care where they live, rather than as a hospital inpatient, while still being in regular contact with health professionals, and in some cases, monitoring health from home using devices such as pulse, blood pressure and oxygen level monitors. NHS England is aiming for more than 10,000 virtual ward beds to be available in England by winter 2023. 

The research found that support for hospital at home was higher amongst disabled people and patients with carer-groups who might be more intensive users of the wards. It also revealed that respondents in socio-economic groups D and E are more unsupportive of virtual wards, with many who said they would not want to receive treatment in this way saying their home would not be a suitable environment. 

Under the right circumstances the research found that seven out of 10 respondents (71%) would be open to receiving treatment via a virtual ward, although a quarter said they were against it (27%). In addition, more than three-quarters said that they would be happy to monitor their own health issues using technology rather than being in hospital.

When looking at NHS staff, 63% of those surveyed said that they were in support of virtual wards, compared to 31% who are not. The benefits of virtual wards they said were 'the ability to admit people to hospital quickly if their condition changes' and the 'ability to talk to a health professional if they need help'.

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