PATIENTS WILL BE able to receive hospital treatments from their own home as the HSE will introduce Acute Virtual Wards in Limerick University Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin early next year.

Those receiving care under a Virtual Ward will remain under the care of their doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals from their home and ward rounds can include a home visit, or video call.  

The “hospital at home scheme” will be suitable for patients in a range of conditions and is already used in other countries for patients with chronic conditions. The aim of the programme is to reduce the reliance of attending hospital.

Patients are typically given electronic medical gadgets by the hospital, such as blood-pressure cuffs, thermometers and oximeters. Hospital staff can collect data about their health in real time using the devices from home.

Alerts and protocols are then established to ensure that should any deterioration in their condition occur, it is attended to immediately and appropriately.

The programme was announced this morning by Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly, who suggests the programme will save up to 8,000 beds per year in each of the hospitals.

Donnelly said: “Expansion of virtual services and the effective utilisation of digital technology in healthcare needs to happen. I asked the HSE to explore options to introduce Virtual Wards as I believe it has huge potential.”

There is hope this programme can help ease the pressure on hospitals as the Department of Health says the HSE still has fewer beds than is needed, despite efforts to increase funding for more by the minister.

Over 1,000 beds have been introduced since 2018, however the Irish health system still has the lowest bed capacity in Europe relative to populations.

Limerick University Hospital group’s main hospital is one of the first to receive the roll out. This is after the group 130 patients were waiting on trolleys for beds at the hospital in October – which is the highest the recorded figure since 2004. 

The group apologised at the time, however the downgrading of Ennis Hospital, as well as other similarly sized hospitals in Limerick city and Nenagh, has been highlighted by doctors and health campaigners in the Mid-West as the key factor behind the overcrowding.  

Virtual wards will use remote technology that is already in place in both hospitals, and the minister hopes the programme will expand further in the following years.

The first two virtual wards will be introduced early next year, with a phased roll-out planned throughout 2024 and beyond – with the potential to accept oncology and palliative care patients.