Tissue Viability Service (Newham)

The Tissue Viability Service offers a nurse led wound care service to the people of Newham who suffer from both acute and chronic wounds and those at risk of developing wounds such as pressure ulcers. The service operates to provide hands on specialist clinical care, expert advice and education for patients and all stakeholders involved in wound prevention and treatment. The service provides a range of advanced wound treatment interventions to enable people to receive care at home or at their GP Practice to prevent hospital admission. 

The Tissue Viability Service are proud of their healing rates and recurrence rates for venous leg ulcers. Currently our healing rates are on average 86% in 12 weeks and recurrence rates are 2.4%. Nationally figures for healing rates are around 50% in 12 weeks and recurrence rates are reported as 24%. 

Recent initiatives and achievements 

The Tissue Viability Service was the front-line submission in 2008 for the High Impact Actions ‘Your skin matters’ and were able to demonstrate a reduction in hospital admissions associated with pressure ulcers by 50% with a cost saving in excess of 59K. 

In 2019, a qualitative research study was undertaken to explore the barriers and enablers to the implementation of evidence-based practice in pressure ulcer prevention and management in a community setting. The findings of this study have been published in Health and Social care in the community journal. 

Quality Improvement 

2018 The team led on a QI Project aimed to address the inequalities in the assessment and management of patients with leg ulcers receiving care at home was welcomed and supported by the district nursing teams. These teams have an increasing demand on their time and are expected to deliver a high-quality service. The project was a success and with the support of the tissue viability team new technologies were introduced which simplified leg ulcer assessment. 

2021 - a Collaborative QI project where the aim was for a reduction of ELFT acquired pressure ulcers in the community by 10%. The project was a success, and we were able to demonstrate a 31% reduction. Some of the changes ideas were introducing Telehealth monitoring and the use of wound Photography to aid triage of referrals and support correct identification of the category of pressure ulcers. This led to the team being awarded the Silver Prize at the British Journal of Nursing Awards 2023. 

2024 The team led a project to improve evidence-based practice for dressing selection. They were able to demonstrate a sustainable reduction in percentage of patients with inappropriate dressings from 33% to 11%