Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism: A Key Patient Safety Priority

Prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is an important part of our strategy to improve patient safety.

The Northern Ireland HSC Safety Forum established and facilitated a regional collaborative which developed a single VTE Risk Assessment Tool for N.Ireland.

In a letter issued in July 2011, the CMO commended the use of this assessment tool across the region.  This should ensure that every adult patient has a documented VTE risk assessment on admission to hospital which reflects guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (clinical guideline CG92).

It is hoped that this unified approach to VTE risk assessment will also improve and streamline the training of medical and nursing staff and reduce the need for re-training if they move their place of employment.

We have also published a patient information leaflet aimed at people who are at risk of developing a blood clot and includes details on what a blood clot is, the signs and symptoms, the risk factors and what methods may be used to reduce the risk of a blood clot. It can be found here.