Recommendations from the National Wound Care Strategy Programme regarding the treatment of lower limbs has shown marked improvement in the treatment of leg and foot ulcers in a national pilot.
Healthcare providers across England piloted the recommendations over a period of two years, including Kent Community Health NHS Trust, Manchester Foundation Trust, Mid and South Essex Community Collaborative, Livewell Southwest, Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust and City Healthcare Partnership, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.
Findings revealed that 52% of leg ulcers healed at 0-12 weeks, greatly exceeding the baseline of 37% at 52 weeks, with an overall healing rate of 84% at 52 weeks for all lower limb wounds. The pilot also showed a 14% recurrence rate for leg ulceration, which is significantly lower (23 percentage points) than the implementation case assumption.
With wound care in England thought to cost approximately £8.3 billion per annum, a 27.6 benefit-cost ratio based on outcomes achieved suggests a strong economic case for adoption of dedicated lower limb wound care services. Furthermore, the net zero impact from patients receiving optimal care in the pilot is estimated at 473,305kg of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 277 cars driven in a year.
Rachael Lee, Acting Programme Manager at the National Wound Care Strategy Programme comments:
“The organisations taking part in the pilot were of different sizes and structures providing NHS care who implemented the Lower Limb Recommendations and gained learning that it is hoped can be applied to other healthcare settings to help improve lower limb care on a wider scale.
“We are therefore happy to share that findings and recommendations from this evaluation reflect significant improvement in patient outcomes and establishes a national benchmark for best practices.”
Skills for Health worked in partnership with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme on the National Wound Care Core Capabilities Framework for England in support of the NWCSP. Describing the required skills, knowledge and behaviours to improve wound care, it is the first multi-professional framework of its kind. Welcoming the results of the pilot, Skills for Health consultant Andrew Lovegrove said:
“Wound care in England is thought to cost billions annually, underlining the importance of all the hard work put in by the NWCSP team to engage with the pilot sites, ensuring the implementation of the recommendations and recording of data to achieve these rich results.
“This pilot demonstrates that a more considered approach to the configuration of services and workforce deployment is central to effective wound care.
“These incredibly encouraging results not only give confidence in the clinical recommendations of NWSCP, but also provide compelling evidence that the workforce approach adopted too will lead to improved services in the future.”
To find out more about NWCSP visit: www.nationalwoundcarestrategy.
