A technology company has entered a ‘landmark partnership’ with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to build the ‘virtual hospital of the future’.
Doccla, which provides remote and continuous patient monitoring solutions, will work with the health board to alleviate hospital discharge pressures, and free up clinicians’ time.
NHSGGC will use the platform in conjunction with its new Flow Navigation Centre +Plus centre, a new multi-disciplinary hub that allows medics to rapidly assess and treat patients remotely, where possible.
The innovation allows more non-emergency care cases to be treated without coming unnecessarily to busy A&E departments, where they face waits of multiple hours.
Health board chief executive Jann Gardner confirmed that the partnership with Doccla will enable their technology to be integrated with the Flow hub environment, with the creation of 1,000 virtual beds.
Gardner, who brought the hub innovation to her previous role as chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire, said: “We are excited to work together to establish the first 1,000 virtual bed hospital embedded within our planned Flow Navigation Centre +Plus and reshape health across the Greater Glasgow and Clyde system.
“This partnership with Doccla is an important step forward. It will allow us to deliver the right care in the right place for our patients, helping us to transform and develop our NHS now and into the future.”
She added: “The reason we are here – safe, person-centred and effective provision of care – is at the heart of everything we do at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. I’d like to thank all our staff for their continued commitment to delivering new approaches to care.”
Described as a ‘major collaboration’ by the firm, which has offices in London and Sheffield, the pioneering deployment will see patients receiving high-quality medical support from the comfort of their own homes – reducing hospital admissions, freeing up vital bed capacity, and improving patient outcomes across the region.
Its virtual ward technology combines medical-grade monitoring devices with clinician-led interventions to support patients at home. NHSGGC, which serves 1.2 million patients, will also be able to put its services on a more sustainable footing, which has faced recent criticism with the length of waiting times for 2,725 patients reaching two years.
The company was established in 2019 after its founder, Martin Ratz, suffered a heart attack. He claimed his experience of a hospital stay and discharge without any monitoring seemed ‘ridiculous’ when new technology was available. He then founded the firm, with current CEO Dag Larsson, with the mission to put patients more in control of their recoveries from the comfort of their homes.
Larsson said: “Our partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde marks a major milestone in the evolution of virtual care. Together, we are laying the foundation for the hospital of the future—digitally enabled, patient-focused, and built around delivering care where it’s needed most. This collaboration reflects our shared ambition to unlock the full potential of virtual healthcare across Europe, starting with meaningful impact for patients in Scotland.”
