Now it's blood clots

A few days ago the spotlight was on bed sores, which were described as totally preventable.

Now Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS's medical director, has said it is “absolutely disgraceful” that so many patients die every year after developing Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) on hospital wards.

Some 25,000 people die in England each year – more than the combined toll from breast cancer, Aids and traffic accidents – after developing DVT and a pulmonary embolism in hospital.

In addition, NHS trusts have paid out £110million in compensation to sufferers of hospital-acquired DVT over the past six years.

Many suffer because fewer than half of trusts assess inpatients’ risk level when they are admitted, despite the threat of Department of Health fines.

So we are going to have yet another exercise to name poorly performing hospitals.

Too big to be accountable - and what will happen to this lot of under-performers?