A Norfolk hospital is leading the way when it comes to reducing thrombosis.

As health chiefs nationally campaign to cut the estimated 25,000 preventable deaths from the condition which occur in Britain's hospitals every year, there have been no cases at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn for three months.

Reducing hospital-associated thrombosis is one of the Government's four top 'reducing harms', the others being reducing rates of catheter infections, pressure ulcers and falls.

Patients at the QEH are screened on admission to assess their risk of developing VTE - venous thrombo-embolism, sometimes referred to as deep vein thrombosis.

National figures show that there are actually 32,000 deaths from hospital-associated thrombosis throughout the country each year. Of these 25,000 are considered to be preventable if patients are risk-assessed on admission to hospital and given the right preventative treatment.

Last month NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh told Radio 4's Face the Facts programme that only 48pc of hospital Trusts in England currently assess inpatients for their thrombosis risk on admission.

'Attacking this problem is a moral and social responsibility for the professionals,' he went on.

Figures have been dropping steadily at the QEH since screening began, in May 2010, when screening began. By this May, the hospital had no patients at all with hospital-associated thrombosis.

Lizzie Macleod-Collins, anti-coagulation specialist practitioner at the QEH, said: 'This is making a huge impact on patient care. It gives a clear message about the importance we place in this Trust on patient safety. Quite simply this is saving lives.'