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Resource Type: Thought leadership

HomeLink Healthcare welcomes the NHS 10 Year Plan

The National Health Service (NHS) has unveiled an ambitious 10-year plan aimed at transforming healthcare delivery in the United Kingdom.

HomeLink Healthcare strongly supports the Plan’s vision to transform healthcare delivery through integrated, person-centred care. As a provider of clinically led Hospital at Home services, we are encouraged by the Plan’s commitment to community-based care, digital innovation, and reducing pressures on acute services. These goals align closely with our mission and capabilities and we look forward to playing a pivotal role in its success.

We are particularly pleased to see the emphasis on:

  • Expanding out-of-hospital care: The Plan recognises the need to shift more care into the home and community. HomeLink Healthcare has long championed this model, delivering safe, effective, and personalised clinical care at home that reduces hospital stays and improves patient outcomes.
  • Improving urgent and emergency care pathways: By enabling early discharge and admission avoidance, our services directly support this aim, easing demand on emergency departments and inpatient capacity while ensuring continuity of care.
  • Delivering anticipatory care: We support the Plan’s focus on prevention and early intervention. HomeLink Healthcare is well-positioned to help identify and manage health risks before they escalate, offering proactive, personalised care plans that keep people healthier at home and reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
  • Harnessing digital innovation: The move towards digitally enabled care aligns with our approach, which incorporates remote monitoring and data-driven care coordination. We see real potential in scaling technology-enabled services to enhance safety, efficiency, and patient engagement.
  • Supporting integrated care systems: Our flexible service models are designed to fit local needs and complement NHS and community services, ensuring patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Jill Ireland, CEO and Clinical Director commented: “The NHS 10-Year Plan marks a critical step forward in transforming how and where care is delivered. At HomeLink Healthcare, we’ve seen first-hand the impact that home-based care can have — improving patient outcomes, easing system pressure, and enabling people to live well at home for longer. We are proud to support this vision.”

To realise the ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Plan, there is a crucial role for agile, clinician-led organisations like HomeLink Healthcare. Our work with NHS trusts and ICBs across the country demonstrates that high-quality home-based clinical care can alleviate system pressures while improving patient satisfaction and outcomes.

We look forward to continued collaboration with NHS partners to help deliver the transformation the Plan envisions. Together, we can build a more sustainable, patient-focused health system that delivers care closer to home.

Get in touch

To discuss how HomeLink Healthcare could help your organisation with Hospital at Home services or to request a free feasibility assessment, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us.

£2bn in Delayed Discharge Costs: Why Investing in Out-of-Hospital Care Is the Smartest Way Forward

A new article from HSJ, based on a report from NHS England*, has revealed that delayed hospital discharges are now costing the NHS an estimated £2 billion per year. With over 13,000 patients a day occupying hospital beds despite being medically fit to go home, the strain on NHS capacity and finances is greater than ever.

The data shows that a third of these delays are caused by a lack of out-of-hospital capacity — exactly the space where HomeLink Healthcare operates.

At HomeLink Healthcare, we believe that the solution lies in better integration between hospital and community services. By providing clinician-led care in people’s homes — from rehabilitation and reablement to complex nursing and therapy — we help patients leave hospital sooner, recover safely, and free up vital NHS bed space.

Our services have already been proven to:

  • Improve patient flow: reduce hospital length of stay by an average of 7 days per patient
  • Enhance patient experience: deliver exceptional patient satisfaction (average score 98%)
  • Ensure responsiveness: 92% of patents are discharged same day of referral to our services

The cost of inaction is clear: billions lost, beds blocked, and patients delayed.
But the opportunity is equally clear — with trusted out-of-hospital partners like HomeLink Healthcare, the NHS can make every discharge timely, every transition seamless, and every patient journey safer.

Find out how HomeLink Healthcare can support your Trust or ICB.

Contact us today to learn more about our step-down, virtual ward, and home rehabilitation services.

*Sources: HSJ article and NHS England data

Build 2026/27 Capacity Now: Cost-Effective Hospital at Home for Winter, Surge and Year-Round Relief

As NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards look ahead to FY 2026/27, the pressure is already clear: capacity constraints, escalating surge costs, and the need for a sustainable winter plan. HomeLink Healthcare’s Hospital at Home services offer a proven, clinically safe way to increase capacity at around 50% of the cost of inpatient or surge ward beds—while reducing pressure on the front door.

Now is the moment to plan for the surges of next winter and the operational challenges of the coming year. We can help you build a solution that is ready well before pressure hits.

Prepare for 2026/27: Build Capacity Before the Surge

Seasonal demand is predictable—but expensive if systems wait until the Winter surge to act.
HomeLink Healthcare enables NHS partners to put robust, clinically assured options in place months ahead of pressure peaks.

With early planning, Trusts gain:

  • 5% additional bed capacity, delivered safely at home
  • Around 50% cost savings versus inpatient care or surge wards
  • Flexible Hospital at Home and Virtual Ward models
  • Front-door support to reduce avoidable admissions
  • A safe, scalable alternative to building temporary capacity

By planning now, organisations can avoid the extreme costs and workforce strain of last-minute escalation beds.

Proof in Practice: 50% Cost Savings

Through partnerships our services have demonstrated substantial operational and financial impact, including cost reductions of around 50%.

These aren’t theoretical benefits—they’re live, measurable outcomes from real NHS systems.

Virtual Ward Support for Winter and Beyond

As Trusts plan for 2026/27 and winter resilience, many are choosing to expand Virtual Ward provision to relieve pressure at the acute front door.

Our Virtual Ward support models (with or without remote monitoring):

  • Reduce unnecessary admissions
  • Speed up safe discharge
  • Improve flow year-round
  • Ease peak pressure during surge and winter periods

Start the Conversation Now

If Trusts and ICBs begin planning now, they can enter FY 2026/27 with:

  • Clear capacity
  • Better financial headroom
  • A functioning winter resilience model
  • Surge-proof services operating safely at scale

At HomeLink Healthcare, we know the NHS needs reliable partners and bravery to adopt change.

Let’s support you to build your 2026/27 plan now—before more pressure arrives. Contact us here.

Rapid clinical capacity for winter pressure

Every winter, NHS systems face predictable surges in demand—but traditional escalation measures are costly, resource-intensive, and often unsustainable.

You need a solution that adds capacity quickly, safely, and efficiently.

A smarter way to expand capacity

HomeLink Healthcare delivers scalable Hospital at Home services that create immediate clinical capacity—without the need for additional physical beds.

We enable medically optimised patients to continue treatment at home, freeing up acute beds and protecting flow across the system.

Delivering measurable impact

  • Up to 55% cost savings per inpatient bed (reported by an NHS Trust)
  • 15 bed days saved per patient (average)
  • 99% patient satisfaction
  • Low readmission rates
  • Improved discharge flow and reduced system pressure

Compared to temporary surge wards—which can cost up to 2x a standard inpatient bed—our model delivers both clinical and financial efficiency.

What we provide

A fully managed, clinically led service delivered by experienced healthcare professionals, including:

  • Hospital at Home
  • Early Supported Discharge
  • Virtual Ward support
  • Rehabilitation and Reablement
  • Discharge to Assess (D2A)
  • Bridging services

We also deliver complex care at home, including IV therapies, post-surgical rehab, wound care, and clinical monitoring.

Built for system pressure

We mobilise to support winter demand:

  • Rapid workforce scale-up
  • Flexible pathway expansion
  • Integration with existing services
  • Immediate impact on bed availability and flow

Act early. Stay ahead of demand.

Winter pressure is predictable. Capacity gaps don’t have to be.

We help NHS organisations respond proactively—adding safe, scalable capacity exactly when it’s needed.

We’re an approved provider on the NHS SBS Framework.

On average a new service requires 12 – 15 week mobilisation, so speak to us today to strengthen your winter plan!

Call us on (020) 3137 5370 or fill in the form below.

Planning for Winter: How our Hospital at Home services support NHS Trusts

As NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) begin preparing for the Winter months, the importance of strategic planning and timely implementation of community-based care models has never been clearer. At HomeLink Healthcare, we work in partnership with the NHS to deliver Hospital at Home services that not only alleviate Winter pressures but also support the priority towards more personalised, home-based care in line with the NHS 10-Year Plan.

The Winter Challenge

Every Winter brings predictable surges in hospital admissions, delayed discharges, and pressure on A&E departments. This year will be no exception, with increasing demand forecasted alongside continued workforce challenges and an aging population with complex needs.

For Trusts and ICBs, the question is no longer if to invest in hospital at home, but how quickly and effectively those models of care can be mobilised.

A Proven Solution: Hospital at Home

HomeLink Healthcare’s Hospital at Home services provide NHS-standard clinical care in a patient’s own home. This allows medically stable patients who would otherwise be in a hospital bed to receive interventions such as the following:

  • IV therapies including TDS and QDS
  • Post-surgical physiotherapy and rehabilitation
  • Complex wound care and post-operative support
  • Clinical monitoring and assessments
  • Spinal brace and collar care
  • Phlebotomy delivery

Delivered by experienced nurses, therapists, and healthcare professionals, our clinical model reduces unnecessary hospital stays, frees up acute beds, and helps prevent avoidable admissions – exactly when NHS capacity is stretched.

Patient Choice and Outcomes

Hospital at Home services significantly enhance patient choice and experience by allowing individuals to receive acute-level care in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes. This model empowers patients to choose where they receive treatment, often resulting in greater satisfaction and a sense of control over their care.

“Our patients have reported 98% satisfaction since January 2024 to date.”

Patients benefit from a more personalised, less stressful environment.  The presence of loved ones and the ability to maintain daily routines contribute to improved emotional well-being and faster recovery, reflected in patient outcomes data such as EQ-5D-5L and m-Barthel scores.

Overall, Hospital at Home services offer a patient-centred approach that aligns with individual preferences while maintaining high standards of clinical care.

Why Plan Now?

Implementing Hospital at Home requires collaborative planning, clear governance, and integration with local pathways. That’s why now is the time to act.

By partnering with HomeLink Healthcare ahead of Winter, NHS Trusts can:

  • Launch pilot programmes or expand existing services before demand peaks
  • Ensure staff are trained and systems embedded
  • Demonstrate proactive leadership and innovation

We provide flexible, scalable models tailored to local needs and priorities – with a proven track record of delivering safe, high-quality care across multiple NHS partnerships.

On average, in Winter months (Dec – Feb), HomeLink Healthcare has saved the NHS up to 11,021 hospital bed days by treating patients at home.

We have also been able to flex and support Trusts and ICBs with additional pathways to maximise flow during Winter. Read about how we supported one ICB with their community provision here.

By embedding Hospital at Home services now, NHS organisations are not just responding to Winter pressures—they are laying the foundations for sustainable, long-term transformation.

Ready to Partner?

Whether you’re exploring Hospital at Home for the first time or looking to enhance your current model, HomeLink Healthcare is ready to help you prepare for Winter and beyond.

Let’s work together to move care closer to home — where patients want to be, where outcomes improve, and where NHS systems can operate more effectively under pressure.

Contact us today to discuss how HomeLink Healthcare can support your Trust or ICB in implementing Hospital at Home services in time for Winter.

Release in-patient bed capacity this winter with Hospital at Home services

The case for Hospital at Home services is compelling. Seasonal resilience funding is often seen as a one-off. Why not use it to work with an experienced provider which has a track record of delivering results for the NHS and for patients. HomeLink Healthcare can also help with business planning now. This will speed up the process of delivery once funding is released.  

According to the Delivery Plan for Urgent and Emergency Services the winter crisis of 2022 saw hospitals fuller than pre-pandemic levels, with 19 out of every 20 beds occupied and 7.2 million patients on waiting lists. In January 2023, nearly 14,000 beds were occupied by patients who were fit to be discharged.  

This winter is expected to see similar challenges. With bed occupancy rates over 90%, hospitals are increasingly looking towards Hospital at Home services to free up beds ahead of winter. 

The case for Hospital at Home services is compelling

"Boosting care in the community and treating more people at home is key to recovery – it is better for patients and their families, as well as easing pressure on NHS services."
- Amanda Pritchard, NHS Chief Executive

NHS England sees Hospital at Home and Virtual Wards as a key solution to improving patient flow through A&E and reducing elective recovery waiting lists. According to statistics patients are five times less likely to acquire an infection and eight times less likely to experience functional decline on a Virtual Ward compared to an acute setting. Twenty-three per cent of these patients also achieve a more independent social care outcome. 

HomeLink Healthcare provides Hospital at Home services through a number of pathways including Early Supported Discharge, Discharge to Assess, Virtual Wards, Reablement, Rehabilitation, Anticipatory Care, and Bridging Packages of Care. 

Seasonal resilience funding can relieve the pressures and build a case for future roll-out 

As Hospital at Home services become more established, and increasing numbers of patients are seen at home, savings can be made through introducing fewer hospital beds and outsourcing less elective care procedures to the private sector.  

Setting up a Hospital at Home service doesn’t need to be difficult

A Hospital at Home service requires expert knowledge; integration with existing governance structures; staffing; and in the case of Virtual Wards, technology. We understand that this can be quite daunting, particularly at a time of such immense pressure.  

That is where HomeLink Healthcare comes in.  

  • EXPERTISE IN HOSPITAL AT HOME: We are 100% focused on delivering Hospital at Home services and have been since 2016. We have numerous clients and we deliver services in four of the seven NHS England regions. 
  • COMMITMENT TO QUALITY: We are clinician-run and everything we do is patient-centric. Our clients see us as ‘NHS like’ and in our most recent client survey we received 100% client satisfaction. 
  • NO NEED TO RECRUIT: We bring with us a multi-disciplinary team of compassionate, patient-focused nurses, therapists and healthcare support workers. 
  • TECH, OR NO TECH, NO PROBLEM: If you’re interested in a Virtual Ward, we can provide our own technology partner, or work with your existing technology supplier. 
  • FAST, EFFECTIVE MOBILISATION OF SERVICES: Services can be procured directly using the NHS Shared Business Services Patient Discharge and Mental Health Step Down Beds Services Framework. We use a PRINCE 2 project management approach, supported by a dedicated project manager and can get brand new services up and running within 12 weeks.  
  • WE WORK IN PARTNERSHIP: We bring our expertise and tried and tested ways of working and at the same time treat each relationship on a case-by-case basis. We have been shortlisted for three HSJ Partnership awards.  
  • REAL-TIME DATA: Advanced KPI reporting enables clients to see what is happening in real-time and share best practice. Data includes patients, visits, outcome measures and patient experience metrics 

We can help you to increase hospital discharges in time for winter

HomeLink Healthcare can get a brand new service up and running within 12 weeks. This means that if you act now, you can have new pathways in place by winter 2023/24.  

No funding yet? Don’t let that stop you from contacting us!

We know that funding for winter is on its way but that you might not know how much you will receive. To avoid unnecessary delay, and to make things easier for you during the procurement phase, our staff can carry out a no-obligation feasibility assessment now. The outputs from this can also be used to help pull together a business case. After funding levels have been agreed, we can adjust the numbers accordingly.  

View our case studies:

  • Last year we implemented new Bridging Packages of Care and Reablement pathways in Buckinghamshire. Discussions started in the summer before funding was in place, and the service commenced on 1 December 2022. The service saved 951 bed days its first 18 weeks. Read more here 
  • A patient in Norfolk gets home in time for Christmas thanks to the Virtual Ward. Read more here  
  • Hospital at Home services in Norfolk and Waveney save the equivalent of two hospital wards every day. Read more here.  

Work with us

Find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a hospital at home service.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of our team about our services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience of supporting our NHS partners and how we might be able to help you. 

 

Virtual wards: tech matters, but so do people

Emily Wells CNIO NNUHEmily Wells is the first Chief Nursing Information Officer to be appointed by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and was the Digital Health CNIO of the Year in 2021. Here, she outlines her thoughts on how to develop a successful virtual ward, drawing on her Trust’s experience of working on new care pathways with HomeLink Healthcare.

NHS England recently issued a letter to give health and care services early sight of its thinking about the coming winter. One of its recommendations is to increase capacity by the equivalent of 7,000 beds, some of which will be on virtual wards.

The letter has renewed debate about the use of virtual wards, and whether they can be safe and effective. Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has considerable experience of setting up and operating this new model of care, during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

Our experience is that they can release valuable bed days: by the end of September, more than 1,530 patients had been through the NNUH virtual ward, releasing more than 11,000 bed days. Just as importantly, they can deliver benefits to patients.

Patients can return home days or even weeks earlier, to recover in the comfort of their own surroundings, sleeping in their own bed, eating their own food, and being in the company of their family, friends and pets.

However, that only applies as long as they also feel safe and cared for. That means virtual wards need good planning and governance. They need to be supported by the right technology. And they may need something that is often overlooked, which is skilled staff to provide at home care. On the Norfolk and Norwich virtual ward, this is provided by HomeLink Healthcare.

Responding to the need for home IV therapy and new services for Covid-19

"There have been other benefits to working with a private provider. It’s not just that we would have struggled to recruit the staff required. HomeLink Healthcare understands the NHS and is committed to partnership working."

Our experience of working with this specialist provider of hospital at home services started in 2018. An audit had shown that there were many patients in hospital on IV therapy, who could have been treated at home if there had been a service available.

I worked closely with HomeLink Healthcare to define a pathway for these patients. We worked on the referral criteria and the governance to make sure the service was safe, and then we tested it and rolled it out in the first months of 2019.

Then, I moved into my current role, and in March 2020, Covid-19 arrived. In the first year of the pandemic, we were looking at how remote monitoring technology could support the Trust.

So, when the national ask came through to set up a virtual ward, we were able to respond at pace; initially to support Covid-19 patients who could be safely treated at home but quickly expanding to incorporate additional pathways.

We loaned patients devices that they could use for daily phone or video calls with staff and provided them with devices to measure temperature, pulse, blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels.

The virtual ward was very well received. Patients said that they found the technology easy to use and valued being in control of their routines. So, as we reset after the pandemic, we continue to expand the concept.

Today, the Virtual Ward looks after many patients who would ordinarily require a hospital bed. We have developed a ‘waiting for treatment’ pathway for patients who would otherwise have to remain in hospital. We can accept oncology and palliative care patients.

In fact, we have around 15 active pathways, and we are still exploring new uses for the concept. For example, we are looking to create a ‘front door’ service for patients who might otherwise be admitted after attending the Emergency Department. We know that if patients are admitted, they can deteriorate, so the idea is to turn them around and get them home again – while making sure that they still get the monitoring and treatment they need.

Successful virtual wards need the right tech – and the right hands-on care

"HomeLink Healthcare also has great reporting tools, so we know what is being delivered and what impact it is having."

In all of these cases, we are looking after patients who would ordinarily require a hospital bed and be inpatients. That means our virtual ward is part of the hospital. Patients are not discharged onto the ward; they remain under the care of a consultant and our virtual ward team.

We use Current Health to monitor the observations collected by the remote monitoring devices. We see the readings on a dashboard and have a ward round and do everything that we would do for them in hospital. And where patients need hands-on care, we use HomeLink Healthcare to provide it.

HomeLink Healthcare delivers IV therapy and a specialist wound care service known as VAC therapy. Its staff can carry out blood tests and observations. The technology gives us visibility of our patients, and if they show a sign of deterioration, we can ask HomeLink Healthcare to visit that patient – which might save us an admission to check on an alert.

Of course, we also work closely with our community provider, Norfolk Community Healthcare NHS Trust and existing services, such as the Aylsham Medical Day Unit, which provides a day-case medication, IV therapy, and other treatment service on-site.

Right at the start of our NNUH at Home development, we co-created an operational manual that was focused on safety. That really matters in our model, because if the consultants who remain responsible for patients are not confident that they will be safely and effectively cared for, they will not refer to it.

HomeLink Healthcare also has great reporting tools, so we know what is being delivered and what impact it is having. That business approach to things is very helpful, because it gives us visibility of where patients are being seen and what care they are receiving.

Supporting the NHS this winter, and working for patients

As we head into the winter, we will continue to develop our virtual ward and work within the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System to join up a larger model of care across the system.

We started behind other health systems in terms of digital maturity, but these new services are performing exceptionally well; something that has been recognised by senior officials from NHS England and representative bodies.

That’s because we were able to focus on the governance, and finding the right model, supported by the right technology, and the right home care.

We know that virtual wards can deliver additional capacity to the NHS, but we also know that they can deliver a great service for patients. Most people would prefer to recover in their own homes, as long as they feel safe and well cared for; and virtual wards can deliver on both.

This article is also published in the following journals:

Building Better Healthcare Virtual Wards

HT World Virtual Wards

Work with us

Find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a hospital at home service.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of our team about our services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience of supporting our NHS partners and how we might be able to help you. 

Chief Clinical Officer presented at RCNi virtual wards webinar in February

Jane Tobin, Chief Clinical Officer, HomeLink Healthcare

On 1st February Chief Clinical Officer, Jane Tobin, was one of the keynote speakers at the RCNi Virtual Ward webinar.

Jane presented to hundreds of nurses about the nurses role in the set up and delivery of a virtual ward.

The patient need is at the heart of the HomeLink Healthcare virtual ward. Jane discussed the nurses role in the setup of a virtual ward including co-design, development of clinical leadership and governance, pathway design and KPI development. She also talked about how the nurse is at the heart of the delivery of a virtual ward, covering off the different roles in-hospital and within the home. Embedded in the presentation is a video which shows a nurse delivering patient care on the virtual ward.

The session was very well received with lots of questions and interaction from the attendees.

You can watch the full presentation here: Virtual Wards, Lessons Learned

Jane’s presentation starts at 8 minutes 20 seconds.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of our team about our services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience of supporting our NHS partners and how we might be able to help you. 

Virtual wards and how the independent sector can enable their success

Healthcare Support WorkerFollowing their success during the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS England has set challenging targets to roll-out virtual wards across the country. Jill Ireland, our Chief Executive and Clinical Director agrees with NHSE/I guidelines that integrated care systems should be looking to work in partnership with the independent sector. Jill argues that the independent sector has a lot to offer and that working with a specialist provider of hospital at home services is an excellent way for them to deliver successful services.

Covid-19 put almost intolerable pressure on the country, the NHS and communities; but one of the unexpected benefits of the pandemic was the realisation that many more patients can be cared for at home.

The pandemic provided an opportunity to try out new ways of working, and we saw the rapid roll-out of virtual multidisciplinary teams, virtual clinics and consultations, remote monitoring and virtual wards.

As the health and care system looks to recover and reset, NHS England and Improvement is looking to build on these developments to address some of the challenges posed by the huge backlog of elective care.

More than 6 million people are now waiting for treatment in England, and the list is rising by 100,000 people per month. With the hospital beds that are available under enormous pressure, NHS England is looking to virtual wards to create additional capacity.

Virtual ward targets, guidance, and funding

Virtual wards will only be successful if they combine partnership working, technology, and skilled clinical teams.

  NHSE/I has set a target for every integrated care system to create 40-50 virtual ward beds per 100,000 people in their population.

Guidance in April set out ‘enablers for success’ that stressed ICSs should not use virtual wards as an extension of traditional, community nursing services, which tend to support people with long-term conditions.

Instead, it said virtual wards should be used to provide hospital at home services; either ‘step up’ care (to prevent admissions to hospital) or ‘step down’ care (to support earlier discharge).

‘Enablers for success’ also advised ICSs to work in partnership with the independent sector to secure the skills and technology required and outlined how to bid for central funding.

NHSE/I is making £200 million available for virtual wards this year from its Service Development Fund on a match-funded basis. There will be an additional £250 million next year to test out ideas and after that it’s expected that these services will become ‘business as usual’.

The case for finding an expert partner

Virtual wards are an emerging space, which makes this guidance useful. It explains what NHSE/I means by ‘virtual ward’ (and what it doesn’t), sets out some clear expectations around the involvement of the independent sector, and establishes a clear direction of travel.

For HomeLink Healthcare, this is exciting. We were formed seven years ago to deliver Hospital at Home services and already run virtual wards in partnership with commissioners and Trusts in London and the East of England.

Despite this, we are sometimes challenged that NHS organisations can do this themselves. In some cases, of course, they can. However, as the ‘enablers’ guidance makes clear, virtual wards are being set up to provide additional capacity; not to stretch existing resources even more thinly.

Also, nursing acutely ill patients at home requires skill and experience. HomeLink Healthcare’s teams are built around clinicians with a backgrounds in both acute and community care, who are also experienced in handling the challenges of delivering clinical care in the home.

In addition, we have developed some really good reporting capabilities. We can report a suite of KPIs in almost real time, so commissioners have complete transparency about what we are doing and how we are doing it.

More than 6 million people are now waiting for treatment in England, and the list is rising by 100,000 people per month.

More capacity, better outcomes for patients

When the news broke about this big expansion of virtual wards, there was a criticism of the idea in the press and concern from professional bodies.

There was a feeling that patients should be in hospital and that delivering hospital-level care at home poses too great a risk to staff and patients alike.

It’s true that this model is not suitable for everybody. However, we work with our NHS partners to risk assess the patients who are referred to our services.

We know that what HomeLink Healthcare does is valued by patients and relatives, thanks to the feedback we receive through our Patient Experience questionnaire. We also have evidence that our patients can recover faster when they are treated in their own home than they would have done in hospital.

After all, few people want to spend time on a hospital ward. Most would prefer to be in their own environment, as long as they are well-supported.

So, I think that as we see virtual wards rolled out, we will see fewer challenges of this kind – as long as ICSs follow emerging best practice and deliver these new models of care in a safe and effective way.

No going back?

There are some pitfalls that could still derail this new policy. NHSE/I is funding virtual wards for the next two-years, so there is a danger that ICSs could see this as a ‘pilot’ project, when our experience is the best results come from running virtual wards at scale.

ICSs could also see virtual wards as a technology challenge, rather than a service redesign challenge. The ‘enablers’ guidance says virtual ward services should be ‘tech enabled’ – but they cannot be purely technology driven.

As the guidance itself says, virtual wards will only be successful if they combine partnership working, technology, and skilled clinical teams.

The technology required to support virtual wards is developing all the time and giving health and care professionals new telemetry to work with; and from a professional perspective, this is a very appealing way of working. In addition utlising technology can maximise face to face time with patients.

When many health and care organisations are struggling to recruit and retain staff, our teams welcome the challenge of delivering hospital-level care in patients’ homes.

The virtual ward model offers an opportunity for revisioning the healthcare model and I cannot imagine that the health and care system will return to how they were before Covid. There is a big opportunity to rethink how hospitals, community delivery and the patient journey work.

So, over the course of the next six to eight months, I think we will see virtual ward models refined. We will see evaluations conducted, so we create a test and learning environment.

We will see forward-thinking ICSs developing innovative partnerships with independent providers. And we will see that the end point is to deliver virtual wards at scale. NHSE/I has started an evolution, rather than a revolution; but this is the future.

This is the beginning of the change and we need to think about how much further we can go with these models.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Work with us

Find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a virtual ward.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of our team about virtual wards, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience of virtual wards and how we might be able to help you.

5 minutes with HomeLink Healthcare Co-Founder Dr. David Lomax, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

This latest instalment in a series of articles giving insight into how HomeLink Healthcare works behind the scenes, asks our Co-Founder and Non-Executive Director Dr. David Lomax about his role within the company, the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the opportunities that exist within the wider industry.

Tell us about your experience in the sector and how that has helped you develop the services offered by HomeLink Healthcare.

Dr David Lomax

I’ve been in medicine all my life. I went to medical school and qualified as a doctor and then completed my postgraduate training in anaesthesia and intensive care. From there I worked at the College of Anaesthetists in the ‘90s. Today, I remain a consultant at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial NHS Trust.

All of which means that with HomeLink and a similar Hospital at Home organisation I founded previously called Medihome, I’ve had parallel careers for the last 20 years or so, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed because of the variety in brings and the amazing people involved.

In fact, despite my medical experience I always had a slight entrepreneurial spirit and enjoyed the ‘business’ side of things, which is one reason the HomeLink journey has been so rewarding.

Of course, it has been a steep learning curve, but I think everyone on the team – especially those of us with backgrounds in the NHS – have made so much progress in establishing a new healthcare model and ensuring it works. It’s been a fascinating process.

When the pandemic hit in 2020 we were in a position to move quickly to help the NHS and others out.

The healthcare sector has faced significant challenges over the last 18 months – what role has HomeLink Healthcare played during the pandemic?

The introduction of the care in the home model, pre-Covid, meant that when the pandemic hit in 2020 we were in a position to move quickly to help the NHS and others out.

Of course, the terrible impact of COVID-19 presented challenges for everyone, but as we’ve moved towards what we all hope will be the end of the virus peak, there’s a huge opportunity for us to work with the NHS to help free up vital hospital beds and treat patients safely in their own home.

This has the double effect of helping to reduce the spread of the virus, while helping to avoid hospital readmissions – or admission to hospital at all. That objective is now key within the NHS as it looks to manage the backlog treatments, particularly elective surgeries.

Tell us about your own role at HomeLink Healthcare and you day-to-day responsibilities.

I’m one of the Founders of HomeLink Healthcare, along with a few other ex-colleagues from our previous company Medihome, who passionately believed in the Hospital at Home model when we opened for business in 2016. We took all of our learnings from our time at Medihome and pulled our experiences together to create the best framework of Hospital at Home care possible at Homelink.

I brought in one of the early investors and to begin with was very hands-on, with lots of brainstorming and idea generation while we got our leadership team in place. Once our CEO & Clinical Director Jill Ireland was on board everything just took off, quickly attracting other investors and a board, at which point I stepped back from day-to-day operations.

Today, I’m a Non-Executive Director at HomeLink, supporting our highly-experienced Chairman and management team as and when required. It’s been a great honour to have been there at the start and to have seen the company and its people grow so quickly.

What are the main healthcare trends you expect to see in 2021/22?

Quite simply, I think we’re going to be left with huge waiting lists in the NHS as a result of COVID-19, so the priority is going to be working with our commissioners to help them find ways to work through that efficiently.

And while we’re doing that everyone will need to work hard to keep the virus itself at bay – the vaccination programme has been amazing in that respect and gives us all a solid platform to build on.

Part of the process involves keeping patients at home rather than in a hospital and that’s where our team can really make a difference – monitoring patients with chronic health conditions and people who are recovering post-COVID. The key is to avoid patients getting worse, spotting any deterioration very early and initiating treatment at home accordingly.

Tell us about the role technology can play in caring for patients at home.

Embracing technology to assist with care in the home is absolutely the way the world is moving, so we’re working hard to develop solutions in that area, with a few techniques already deployed successfully.

And then, of course, there are the great strides that are being made with artificial intelligence (AI), particularly when it comes to patient wearables and monitoring technology. That will help us both now and in the future.

In 2025 we’ll all be talking about…?

I would hope that the clinical tail of the pandemic will be gone, or at least disappearing into the distance. That said, the virus is going to affect individuals for a long time to come, particularly psychologically in terms of social distancing and concern over transmission, even with vaccines circulating. It’s going to change some people’s social behaviour within the community in that respect.

However, I think as far as the care we’ll be providing in the long term, the government agrees that the future of the NHS is home care, especially when it comes to improving social care.

I also think there’ll be opportunities to offer patients more types of treatments in the home, whether that’s administering drugs to treat chronic lung disease, or providing renal dialysis. Those are the kind of things we’re actively talking about and working on.

And don’t forget, technology will be at another level in five years time. The whole point, I think, is the way care is delivered is going to change. The GP’s role is going to change over the next decade, too, if you look at what Babylon is doing to help doctors consult with patients remotely via an app without a surgery visit.

I also think there’ll be opportunities to offer patients more types of treatments in the home, whether that’s administering drugs to treat chronic lung disease, or providing renal dialysis. Those are the kind of things we’re actively talking about and working on.

Which person in, or associated with, the industry would you most like to meet?

I’d like to meet Dr Ali Parsa at Babylon. I just like the way he innovates and the way he thinks is quite interesting. There’s probably a connection we could have as well in terms of what both our companies are trying to achieve. I’d also like to meet the new head of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, to discuss many of the positive things we’ve been talking about here.

What is the most exciting thing about your job?

I just find it really exciting to see and interact with the people we’ve got working with us at HomeLink Healthcare – it’s such a great team, and I think all the frontline professionals who work for us enjoy it, too.

And the fact we’re supporting the NHS and doing such a good job helping our patients too is very rewarding.

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