Portsmouth Hospitals Trust is a large District General Hospital serving around 650,000 people in South-East Hampshire. It is a Cancer Centre for a wider population and houses the Regional Renal Unit and Transplant Service. In 2009 the original three hospital sites were largely consolidated in a new building at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

The Trust has had a long tradition in the field of venous thromboembolism and its prevention. A multi-disciplinary Thrombosis Committee was established in 2005 and in 2008 the team were finalists at the Hospital Update annual awards. The use of risk assessment in both paper and electronic forms has been established for some time and the use of VitalPAC software on handheld computers provides an innovative way of directing, enabling and auditing risk assessment.

The strength of the Thrombosis Committee is its multi-disciplinary membership with the active involvement of clinicians from general and orthopaedic surgery, anaesthetics, emergency medicine, pharmacy, nursing and community services. The work programme not only covers the crucial area of risk assessment and effective prophylaxis but also considers audit, treatment, anticoagulation services and is developing new protocols for heparin induced thrombocytopenia and the management of IVC filters. A process for the investigation of all hospital acquired PE as Serious Untoward Incidents is already established.

2009 proved to be a watershed year with a successful Department of Health visit and subsequent award of Exemplar Site status. We finally established a dedicated VTE nurse role and the postholder is active both in the NICE appraisal and guideline process and as Nursing Director for Lifeblood. The Trust Board have taken an interest in the subject and we have a Non-Executive Director as member of the Thrombosis Committee. We are delighted that VTE prevention has now been recognised as a priority for the NHS and will use this to further develop our priorities around public, patient and staff education, the application of risk assessment and taking effective corrective and preventative action when hospital acquired VTE is identified.

We are very proud to have been granted Exemplar Site status but recognise that we have a great deal to do to improve VTE services. We look forward to the day when all hospital and community services provide exemplary care to patients at risk.

Primary Contacts:

Dr Chris James (consultant haematologist) 

02392 286484 christopher.james@porthosp.nhs.uk

Kim Carter: VTE Nurses Specialist 

02392 286966 kim.carter@porthosp.nhs.uk