Socks could replace drugs as lifeline for 1m hospital patients

At least 25,000 patients die every year - 25 times the number killed by the suberbug MRSA - after suffering deep vein thrombosis following a hospital operation.

Last week a highly critical report from MPs warned that the NHS was systematically underestimating the threat, leading to 500 unnecessary deaths a week.

They demanded urgent measures to combat blood-clotting, which costs the NHS £640million a year despite preventative drugs costing just £1 a day.

But new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, being sent to all hospitals in England and Wales, say only patients aged 60 and over should be routinely considered for bloodthinning drugs.

Up to a million patients aged between 40 and 60 will instead be given compression stockings to wear in hospital, and possibly inflatable "boots" during an operation to encourage blood flow to the legs.

Campaigners claim the guidance is out of step with best practice in other European and developed countries.

Dr Beverley Hunt, medical director of Lifeblood: The Thrombosis Charity, said she

was "very concerned". "These are the first guidelines we've ever had but they are at variance with all other international guidelines which looked at the same evidence," she added.

"The conclusion drawn in other countries is that blood thinners are better than stockings, and they do not have a cut-off age of 60.

"In other countries patients aged 40 to 60 years get blood thinners - they would not have to be classified as being at high risk - and that could be up to one million hospital patients a year in this country."

DVT is blood clots that form in the deep veins of the legs, often as a result of immobility during and after surgery.

If part or all of the clot breaks off and lodges in the lung, it can trigger a pulmonary embolism that causes the lungs to collapse, leading to heart failure.

A substantial number of patients are struck by surgical DVT after they have been discharged from hospital.

A report from a working group set up by the Government's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said last week that all patients at risk should be considered for preventive treatment.

This includes those in hospital for longer than four days with reduced mobility, severe heart failure, respiratory failure, acute infection, inflammatory illness or cancer.

Sir Liam said yesterday that the problem had been a "Cinderella issue" for too long.

He announced the creation of a new working group to look into implementing a DVT risk assessment of every patient on admission to hospital.