People with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can now be tested in their GP surgery in a pilot scheme launched by Sheffield family doctors.
Normally patients would have to undergo hospital-based tests, but the 28 practices in the Central Sheffield GP Consortium are now offering a simple, surgery-based finger-prick blood test and questionnaire.
This should ensure that only those with a positive test result are referred to secondary care for specialist treatment.
Dr Maria Read, senior partner at the inner city Dovercourt Surgery, said: “The d-dimer blood test and questionnaire provides us with a risk score and should ensure that we only refer patients to hospital with a high chance of DVT.
“Many of patients with suspected DVT are older people with other diseases and a surgery-based test will mean we are not sending them unnecessarily to hospital.
“It’s all about providing an enhanced local service and if the pilot proves successful then it should be rolled out to the rest of the city.”
DVT is a disease of the circulation. It occurs most often in people who have not been able to exercise normally.
Blood passing through the deepest veins in the calf or thigh flows relatively slowly, particularly when someone has been immobile for a while.
When a DVT occurs blood moves so slowly that it forms a solid clot which becomes wedged in the vein.
Many blood clots that occur in DVT are small and don't cause any symptoms, but larger ones may block the blood flow in the vein and cause swelling and pain.
Possible complications can include a pulmonary embolism, which happens when part of the blood clot from a DVT breaks off and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs, where it blocks a blood vessel. This is serious and in severe cases, can be fatal.