THE NUMBER of patients being readmitted to hospital in Southampton has dramatically fallen thanks to a pioneering virtual wards scheme that is set to revolutionise the NHS and has saved cash-strapped hospital bosses £3.5m.

New research has revealed that just 1.9 per cent of city patients sent home to recover rather than endure long stays in Southampton General Hospital have been readmitted – compared to an NHS average of nine per cent.

The Recovery at Home programme has proved such a success – freeing up vital bed capacity – that it has been dubbed “a model of healthcare for the future” that could provide a solution to the relentless pressures facing the NHS.

It is believed that the service could create 5,800 “virtual beds” in people’s homes to help hospitals cope with bed shortages and overcrowded emergency departments, which has been a major problem in the city.

The report, published by Healthcare at Home, is now urging NHS bosses to follow Southampton’s example and dramatically expand the service, which is not currently available nationwide.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust launched the scheme two years ago and is now seeing 120 patients a month being sent home to recover in the comfort of their own surroundings.

And while patients enjoy being at home, virtual wards are of course cheaper to provide than the typical £250-a-night cost to the NHS of an overnight stay and during October 2010 and April 2013 a total of 14,000 bed nights were slashed in Southampton – saving £3.5m.

That extra bed capacity has allowed bosses to invest in specialist services and develop its Major Trauma Centre.

Only 45 patients out of a total of 2,366 had to be transferred back to hospital and 86 per cent of those on the scheme reported lower levels of anxiety since leaving hospital, with 91 per cent very satisfied with the quality of care.

Jane Hayward, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “We started this because we are a big, busy trust and didn’t have anywhere else physically to expand into and so needed to think how to do it differently.”

Patients who agree to have their treatment in a virtual ward can avoid anything more than a few hours of treatment in hospital before being sent home under the service, which provides complex clinical support.

They receive up to three visits a day from a nurse to change a dressing, give them an injection or check their blood pressure and up to several visits a week from a physiotherapist who helps them to boost their mobility.

Phillip Chapman-Sheath, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said: “When the Recovery at Home programme started we were dealing with a specific number of conditions.

“Two years on and we are taking on patients post-elective surgery, patients with trauma conditions and those patients with less invasive or serious conditions. I can see this becoming a model of healthcare for the future.”

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