Abstract
Dear Editor,
It is with great interest we read the article written by White et al. on ‘Litigation Claims Relating to Venous Thromboembolism in the NHS’. 1
We agree that data relating to the number of venous thromboembolism (VTE) events and the relevant costs are extremely important; however, it would be useful to understand the denominator of these events; i.e. total number of inpatients treated during the period, and additionally in the surgical field, the number of day cases presenting with VTE.
From reviewing the NHS annual report; over one million patients are assessed every 36 h, and over 2 years, there are approximately 15.5 million hospital admissions. With 189 medico-legal cases over a 5-year-period, this is in fact 0.0000049% of patient admissions, using a total of 0.000017% of the NHS annual budget (total budget 113 billion). 2
It would be helpful to know the total number of patients reviewed during the time period of this report, and the number of extra inpatient days following VTE. We accept the importance of VTE prevention; however, this data appear to imply that only a very small number result in NHS litigation. Pleasingly, this low number is further reducing following National VTE guidance.