A UK-wide audit has been carried out in the first stage of a project to improve the early diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering potentially life-threatening blood clots or venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).
The audit of patients at GP surgeries across the country has been spearheaded by Thrombosis UK who have teamed up with Oberoi Consulting to undertake the deep dive into patient records.
Thrombosis UK is the charity that works to increase awareness, understanding and support for those affected by VTE.
One in 20 people experience a blood clot at some point in their life and VTE accounts for between 5 and 10% of hospital inpatient deaths as well as long-term disability and long-lasting health problems in many thousands more people – costing the NHS more than £165 million a year.
Despite this, early diagnosis of VTE remains challenging and research shows that 40% of patients who died unexpectedly of pulmonary embolism, in particular, had been seen either by a GP or presented in other healthcare settings in the eight weeks prior to their death.
Oberoi Consulting were the ideal choice as they specialise in clinical audit and population health tools coupled with clinical teams and have been working with the NHS across Primary Care for 23 years.
They have carried out an in-depth audit of confirmed VTE patients to determine challenges, common issues and barriers to diagnosis.
Partner organisation, Costello Medical, is now lending its expertise to the work, free-of-charge, to explore and analyse the data and to communicate findings.
Costello Medical provides scientific support to the healthcare industry in the analysis, interpretation and communication of clinical and health economic data and delivers projects free-of-charge on a pro bono basis to charities and non-profit organisations like Thrombosis UK.
Later this year Thrombosis UK will share findings and recommendations designed to support future training for health professional and utilise the findings to develop a tool that will bemade available across the NHS to support timely diagnosis.
The charity’s CEO Jo Jerome explained: “VTE is largely preventable but when an event occurs, if diagnosed promptly, it can be managed and the associated complications affecting both physical and mental health significantly reduced.
“However, symptoms of a blood clot can mimic other conditions and so, when a patient presents to their GP, consideration and investigation for thrombosis may be delayed.
“As a result, VTE is an NHS patient safety priority. Unless we consider thrombosis and investigate, delay can lead to harm and even death. This is a patient safety crisis and Thrombosis UK recognised we need to identify the common issues and barriers delaying early investigation leading to diagnosis.”
Clinical Director of Cardiology Westcliffe Health Innovations, and trustee of Thrombosis UK, Dr Matthew Fay added: “By working with Oberoi Consulting, we are confident that we will have an improved understanding of the barriers to prompt diagnosis which will lead to better training, services and software that will reduce the incidence of missed or incorrect diagnosis.
“Of the practices that kindly volunteered to help in the project, we have been able to immediately discuss the findings of the audit with the clinical team to hopefully start making changes in VTE care in those areas highlighted.”
Oberoi Consulting founder and managing director Kavita Oberoi OBE continued: “With many years’ experience of auditing work to support the NHS, we have already enabled significant improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering with chronic diseases
Oberoi medical director Professor Ahmet Fuat concluded: “Our end goal, working alongside Thrombosis UK, is to create a systems–based tool that, alongside improved training, will help clinicians in every GP practice across the UK to make an early diagnosis of VTE that will both save lives and valuable NHS resources.”