Following the Department of Health and Social Care's announcement to improve digitalisation of the NHS, a virtual ward is being trialled in Cornwall.

43 people around Cornwall on the virtual ward are currently being monitored by clinicians. The aim of the virtual ward is to free up hospital beds and the idea came about in response to the pandemic. By providing equipment and care to people in their own home, the aim is to stop people needing to call an ambulance and use a hospital bed.

The virtual ward is based on an industrial estate in the middle of Cornwall. Despite starting as a response to the pandemic, the scheme is also available for other patients, such as those who are pregnant.

As reported by the BBC, After becoming seriously ill with Covid last year, former virtual ward patient Pamela Gale was given equipment to monitor her oxygen levels at home instead of going into hospital. She said: "As much as I'm aware of the work hospitals, nurses, doctors do, I didn't want to go into hospital.
"I wanted to be at home in bed, with my own surroundings, with my cat. I didn't have to go out in the cold. To be in an ambulance really upsets me anyway, and so I didn't have to do that, I was just in here in my own bubble, being looked after."

She added: "You can call them at any time that you want to, they are on the other end of the phone."

As reported by the BBC, in explaining how the Virtual Ward works, Sarah Poucher, a nurse on the Virtual Ward, said: "With the respiratory patients, the idea is that we monitor their oxygen by calling them every day.
"The idea is we prevent them going to hospital, they recognise that themselves, they seek help before they get to the point that they're really poorly and they end up ringing an ambulance.
"With pregnant ladies, if oxygen is dropping it means the baby's oxygen is dropping as well, and so they are automatically referred for us to monitor, and they have the safety net and advice in terms of when to call an ambulance and when to call 111."