Warrington resident on why she would recommend the virtual ward

Brenda Bradley, an Old Hall resident, suffers from asthma and bronchiectasis , and in previous years she has been in and out of hospital regularly.

Last year, the 81-year-old was asked if she wanted to join the acute respiratory infection virtual ward.

The virtual ward provides hospital-level care and remote monitoring – but crucially in patients’ own home.

The respiratory team at the trust and MerseyCare staff remotely monitor patients until their condition gets better and any problems can be quickly picked up.

When on the ‘ward’, patients carry out their own monitoring each morning which takes around 15 minutes.

Each day, the respiratory team meets virtually with MerseyCare to discuss each patient’s statistics.

If there any problems, they are picked up quickly.

Brenda was initially apprehensive about joining the virtual ward for the first time due to it being a new initiative and because of the technology side of it.

But she decided to give it a try as her husband Dave was receiving treatment for prostate cancer at the time and she was determined to stay at home to support him, despite being unwell herself.

She has not looked back since.

“I was a bit unsure at first because I’m not very good with technology,” she said.

“If I want anything doing with my phone or anything like that, I usually ask my granddaughters.

“I was a bit apprehensive because you usually are at my age, especially with things like that.

“The team came and showed me how it works and it is just so simple, it is really easy to use.”

Since then, Brenda, who has two sons, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, has been a patient on the ward a number of times.

There are many benefits of being on the virtual ward for Brenda and she explained how she would recommend it ‘loud and clear’ to anyone else.

Speaking about what she likes about the virtual ward, Brenda said: “It is the fact that you are at home, because who wouldn’t want to be at home? 

“I can sit here and look out at my garden.

“Being at home, you have actually got the support of your family and they are not restricted to visiting times.

“Plus the fact that you are among your own things which makes you feel more comfortable anyway.

“You can have your TV on, you can have a cup of tea when you like, you can eat when you like  

“It is having your own comforts and having your own routine.”

Recently, Brenda became too unwell to stay at home and ended up spending around six weeks in hospital.

However, she said how the virtual ward even still helped her both before and after her stay in hospital.

She was actually taken to Warrington Hospital by ambulance after the virtual ward team gave her the ‘confidence and reassurance’ to phone 999 after learning of her monitor readings.

And when being discharged from hospital, the virtual ward gave her confidence as she knew she was still being monitored while at home and that if anything happened, she would have ‘immediate help’.

Now, Brenda is back at home and recovering.

She told the Warrington Guardian: “When you have a chronic illness, you have to find a level you can function at to the best standard of living that you can.

“And for me, that is going to garden centres, going out in my own garden, and just pottering about and things like that.

“I haven’t been able to do all of these things for all of this year and a good part of last year.

“So now, it is recovering enough to get back to that level and the virtual ward has really helped me with that.”

The acute respiratory virtual ward currently has 30 beds.

Patients are either self-referred to the virtual ward, or are done so via the hospital.

"It works really well and I think it is a brilliant system that can keep people like me out of hospital."