Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 333-2026
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.
You asked:
Please provide the following information regarding any Remote Monitoring Virtual Ward (RMVW) service available to surgical patients within your Trust, including services referred to as ‘Hospital at Home’ or by any other terminology.
For the purposes of this request, RMVW is defined as any hospital-level care service delivered in a patient’s usual place of residence, using remote monitoring and multidisciplinary clinical oversight to provide assessment, treatment and ongoing monitoring in place of inpatient care.
Please confirm if your trust offers a RMVW service for surgical patients.
If your trust does not provide a RMVW for surgical patients please answer the following questions
Are RMVWs for surgical patients currently being developed or planned within your organisation?
Does your organisation use an RMVW for non-surgical patient groups?
If RMVW is provided for non-surgical patient groups, which non-surgical specialties provide this?
If your trust does provide a RMVW service for surgical patients, please provide the following information.
Please specify which of the following surgical specialties in your NHS trust, if any, provide a RMVW service:
- Breast Surgery
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Colorectal Surgery
Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery
Gynaecology Hepatobiliary
Pancreatic Surgery
Neurosurgery
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Paediatric Surgery
Plastic Surgery
Transplant Surgery
Trauma & Orthopaedics Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery
Urology Vascular Surgery
Other (please specify)
Which of the following patient groups does the RMVW support in your trust?
- Elective post-operative patients
Emergency post-operative patients
Elective patients undergoing pre-operative monitoring or optimisation
Emergency patients awaiting an urgent procedure (e.g. ERCP, gallbladder surgery)
Patients managed non-operatively following an emergency surgical presentation
Other patient group (please specify)
Which of the following types of information does the RMVW collect remotely in your trust?
- Patient-reported symptoms
Clinical Observations (please specify which observations are taken remotely if applicable)
Weight Physical activity levels e.g. step count
Wound photographs
Drain output
Oral intake
Other type of information collected remotely (please specify)
In which of the following ways does the information collected remotely by RMVW patients get fed back to the clinical team?
- Smartphone application
Web-based portal
Telephone call
Text message
Wearable devices
Other (please specify)
How frequently are RMVW patients’ data routinely reviewed?
If this differs between specialties, please specify the individual follow up intervals for each respective specialty, if there is variation in follow up time based on any patient factor e.g. severity of illness, please include the protocol for individual follow up times.
If there are concerns about a patient on RMVW, which of the following methods of escalation is used?
Telephone assessment
Same-day ambulatory or clinic appointment
Attendance at emergency department
Attendance at the surgical assessment unit or equivalent service
Other method of escalation not outlined above (please specify)
Please provide a month-by-month breakdown of number of users of RMVW service in the past 12-month period by surgical specialty. If the RMVW programme has not been in place yet for 12 months, please provide data for the months available.
Please also provide corresponding month by month data for the past 12-month period detailing how many patients required escalation and how many, if any, had a adverse outcome.
What is the average length of time that patients spend on the RMVW over the past 12-month period?
Please include as an attachment any information your trust currently provides for RMVW patients e.g. leaflets or online information.
If your trust has a standard operating protocol for its RMVW or equivalent programme which is currently in use, please include as an attachment.
Where possible, please provide the contact details of any named RMVW leads in your trust.
Our response:
The Trust does not provide a Remote Monitoring Virtual Ward service for surgical patients. Services of this type may be provided by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who can be contacted at;
ghn-tr.foi@nhs.net
Next steps:
Should you have any queries in relation to our response, please do not hesitate to contact us. If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request and wish to ask us to review our response, you should write to:
Louise Moss
Head of Legal Services / Associate Director of Corporate Governance
c/o Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Gloucester Business Park
Brockworth, GL3 4AW
E-mail: Louise.moss20@nhs.net
If you are not content with the outcome of any review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for further advice/guidance. Generally, the ICO will not consider your case unless you have exhausted your enquiries with the Trust which should include considering the use of the Trust’s formal complaints procedure. The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.