Challenge
South East London’s NHS winter plan included implementing and increasing virtual wards to reduce
pressure on physical facilities. While virtual ward programs existed across Local Care Partnerships,
they faced varying occupancy levels with limited referrals from acute settings. The SEL virtual ward
team needed to enhance system-wide buy-in, increase utilization, and maximize capacity to support
acute patient flow for winter 2023/24.
Approach
We designed and facilitated a strategic summit bringing together acute, virtual ward, and community teams.
Our comprehensive approach included:
- Co-designing an interactive and engaging event to meet specific objectives
- Providing strategic advice on content based on local and national context
- Creating sessions to enhance understanding on the virtual ward model
- Facilitating discussions between clinical, service management and ICB colleagues
- Developing patient and clinician case studies for practical context
- Utilising digital tools to maximise engagement and participation
- Managing all logistics including venue selection, invitations, event management
- Producing detailed reporting for system-wide implementation
- Our experienced event engagement team handled all communications and logistics, freeing the ICB team to focus on stakeholder engagement and content delivery.
Impact
The summit achieved impressive results:
- 63% conversion rate of targeted invitees with nearly 60 colleagues attending
- 51% of attendees reported increased ability to identify suitable virtual ward referrals
- 73% committed to applying their new knowledge in practice
- Each locality developed concrete implementation actions for winter preparedness
- Summit outputs were integrated into NHS England submissions and local winter planning.
Most importantly, the event built crucial understanding and trust in virtual ward services across different parts of the healthcare system, laying groundwork for improved patient flow during the challenging winter period.
“Just what I needed! Despite limited time leading up to the event, Blue Lozenge helped to prepare
and facilitate a professionally run summit. Facilitation on the day was spot-on and took into
consideration the diversity and experiences of multiple stakeholders and in doing so ensured delivery
of our desired outcomes and outputs. Feedback from stakeholders was enthusiastic all around and I
would recommend Blue Lozenge.”
Ekuba Edjah, Assistant Director – South East London Virtual Wards