Conclusions
The Virtual Maternity Ward offered (and continues to offer) a safety net
to pregnant women who were positive for COVID-19, and those who were
struggling to access care. It provided reassurance for staff, while
relieving pressures on infrastructure. When setting up similar services
in future, attention should be given to identifying clinical champions,
triage criteria, and technology selection, and establishing flexible
pathways.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge and appreciate the hard work of the Maternity
Virtual Ward team past and present, and the kind assistance of the
Business Intelligence team at NNUH.
Disclosure of interests
MW and NZ are employees of Current Health Ltd.
Authors’ contributions
EW and CB collected the data; MW analysed the data and drafted the
manuscript; CB, NZ and EPC reviewed and revised the draft. All authors
read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval
This paper was deemed exempt from NHS Research Ethics Committee review
according to the UKRI/NRES/MRC/HRA Decision Tool (14 Feb 2022).
Funding
N/A