Virtual ward for children
A virtual ward helping up to 100 children and young people a month avoid having to come into hospital for observation and treatment.
Providing Assessment and Treatment for Children at Home (PATCH) utilises a combination of phone calls, video and, where appropriate, home visits to assess and treat children who otherwise would previously been treated in hospital as inpatients.
The PATCH programme is part of a wider network across north-west London which is helping drive the NHS’s agenda to provide more care closer to home.
Paediatric community nurse practitioners Nichola Starkowitz and Hollie McKim, said: “It has been popular with parents and children who otherwise would be in patients and receiving acute treatment in the hospital.
“Children can find hospital a stressful environment and we know with the right support they recover more quickly at home.”