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VTE Risk Assessment Data Collection – Quarter 3 2016/17

The Official Statistics for Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Risk Assessment in England for Quarter 3 2016/17 (October to December 2016) produced by NHS England were released on 3rd March 2017 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Risk Assessment data collection

Quarter 3 2016/17 (October to December 2016)

Key points

The VTE Risk Assessment data collection is used to inform a National Quality Requirement in the NHS Standard Contract for 2016/17, which sets a threshold rate of 95% of adult inpatients undergoing risk assessments each month.

The key results for data collected on the number and proportion of VTE Risk Assessments carried out on adult inpatients admitted to NHS funded acute care, including foundation and non-foundation trusts and Independent Sector providers, are as follows:

  • Of the 3.7 million adult patients admitted to NHS funded acute care in Quarter 3 2016/17, as reported in this data collection, 3.5 million (96%) received a VTE risk assessment on admission meaning that as a whole England continues to achieve the 95% NHS Standard Contract threshold.
  • The longer term trend shows that the proportion of adult inpatients risk assessed for VTE steadily increased from 53% in Quarter 2 2010/11 to 96% in Quarter 2 2013/14, remaining stable at 96% until Quarter 3 2015/16 with a decreased of 1 percentage point to 95%. For Quarter 4 2015/16 to the latest results in Quarter 3 2016/17, the proportion of patients risk assessed for VTE is 96%.
  • In Quarter 3 2016/17, the proportion of adult inpatient admissions receiving a VTE risk assessment was slightly lower for NHS acute care providers (96%) compared to Independent Sector providers (98%), with NHS acute care providers carrying out around 97% of all VTE risk assessments.
  • All NHS England Regions (London, North of England, South of England, Midlands and East of England) continue to achieve the 95% NHS Standard Contract threshold in Quarter 3 2016/17: The North of England achieved 95% (the same percentage as seen in Quarter 2 2016/17) with the South also achieving 95%, Midlands and East, and London both achieving 96% (the same as in Quarter 2 2016/17).
  • In Quarter 3 2016/17, 86% of providers (266 providers out 308) carried out a VTE risk assessment for 95% or more of their admissions (the NHS Standard Contract threshold). This breaks down as 80.1% of NHS Acute providers (125 out of 156 trusts) and 92.8% of Independent Sector providers (141 out of 152 providers). This is an increase compared to Quarter 2 2016/17, where 85% (236 of 277) of providers (NHS Acute and Independent Sector) carried out a VTE risk assessment for 95% or more of admissions (see Table 3). A number of Independent Sector organisations didn’t report for Quarter 2, which resulted in a lower overall compliance. These Independent Sector Organisations have since reported for Quarter 3 causing overall compliance to increase.
  • Of the 42 providers (14%) who did not achieve the 95% NHS Standard Contract threshold in Quarter 3 2016/17, the majority (28 out of 41) achieved risk assessments for 90-94% of total admissions for VTE.

The full data tables can be found on the NHS England Statistics website:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/vte/vte-risk-assessment-201617/