Exploring the carbon impact of virtual wards in a large acute hospital

Digitally enabled care is being implemented on a large scale across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), with technological advancements allowing the NHS to increase capacity and provide care to more patients in the comfort of their own homes. As the healthcare system becomes more digitally integrated, it is crucial to consider carbon emissions as part of the NHS’s commitment to achieving net zero. While digital healthcare may initially appear to have a lower carbon footprint, factors such as travel and digital infrastructure need to be thoroughly evaluated to ensure a genuinely sustainable model of care. This article examines the carbon emissions associated with a virtual ward (VW) pathway for acute respiratory infection and frailty patients in a large acute trust through a retrospective cohort analysis. The findings suggest that VWs have a significantly lower carbon impact compared with traditional inpatient bed days. Additionally, we compare two methods for calculating carbon emissions: a manual data audit and a large business intelligence data extraction. The results show that manual data audits provide more detailed insights than automated processes. Consequently, we recommend enhancing automated data capture to include more comprehensive information on community and out-of-hospital care.