Visionable has renewed its offer of free video calls to connect hospital patients with their loved ones as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The company, which has developed a video collaboration platform that is used for multi-disciplinary team meetings and virtual clinics across the NHS, created Visionable Connect in the first wave to support patients who could not receive visits from family and friends.

Visionable is now making the system free to existing and new NHS customers until the end of April 2021.

CEO Alan Lowe said: “When we first launched Visionable Connect to NHS trusts we were moved to hear about the impact that it had, particularly where it was used to connect patients in intensive care with their loved ones.

“One trust told us about a patient from Canada who would not have been able to say goodbye to his family without the opportunity to do so virtually. At a time when love and support continues to be vital, we are hoping that Visionable Connect will go some way towards supporting the NHS and its patients at this incredibly difficult time.”

Visionable Connect does not require patient and family to have the same app downloaded, does not require any prior registration and can be accessed via the hospital’s own hardware.

Hospital staff use any internet-connected device to open the Visionable Connect link in a browser and send a text message or email to the person they want to connect with. The connection is made as soon as the recipient clicks on the link. As soon as the call is ended, the link is shut down and no data is left on the device.

Lowe added: “Working with trusts, we realised that we needed to make it easy for patients to keep in touch with their families and support networks, without them having to worry about being registered for commercial calling platforms or using specific devices.

“Visionable Connect fulfilled this requirement and has been very well received by IT teams, staff on the wards and patients. That’s why we were so determined to make sure that the maximum number of patients could benefit as the second wave continues to impact on hospitals and families across the country.”

Visionable is currently working to make the platform more widely available so that it can offer its services to other care providers such as care homes.