Assembly Committee to hold one-day inquiry on venous thrombo-embolism prevention in hospitalised patients

23 May 2012

The National Assembly for Wales’s Health and Social Care Committee will hold a one-day inquiry examining the prevention of venous thrombo-emobolisms (VTE) on Thursday 24 May.

VTEs cover both Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolisms (PE) which both concern blood clots blocking arteries around the human body and account for between 25, 000 and 32, 000 deaths in the UK every year.

Lifeblood: The Thrombosis Charity estimates that two thirds of thrombosis deaths are caused by hospital-acquired thrombosis, therefore this will be the focus of the Committee’s inquiry.

The Committee will take evidence during a day-long session examining the implementation of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidance and the adequacy of the 1000 Lives Plus risk assessment tool which is used across Wales to reduce the risk of patients developing blood clots.