by Jess Banham

A Kent NHS trust is among the UK’s worst for checking patients’ risk of developing blood clots, figures revealed today.

New government rules require all hospitals to assess a minimum of 90 per cent of patients for thrombosis.

But figures from the charity Lifeblood show that at the end of last year staff at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust only checked 16 per cent of patients.

The study put them 158 out of 163 in a league table of trusts.

Two other NHS Trusts in Kent were also failing to hit the national target.

Between October and December, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust risk-assessed 36 per cent of patients and Medway NHS Trust just 33 per cent.

Professor Beverley Hunt, the medical director at Lifeblood, warned if patients do develop a clot it can put lives at risk.

She said: "It can break off and travel round and block some or all of the blood supply to the lungs and if it blocks all the blood supply then obviously somebody would die.

"We’re very concerned as a charity about the quality of education that medical undergraduates and nurses are getting at medical school and nursing school because we feel they’re probably not getting enough basic facts about blood clots."

But all three NHS Trusts said they are working to improve their figures.

In a written statement, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: "The importance of VTE assessment is a key part of our induction and ongoing training for nurses, pharmacists and medical staff."

Both Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust and Medway NHS Trust have also managed to improve their figures over the past three months with the former now risk-assessing 70 percent and the latter 76 percent of patients.