Enhancing a venous leg ulcer treatment pathway with compression wrap devices

District nurses spend about 25–65% of their time caring for patients with leg ulcers, with staff time and wound management costs continually rising (Thambiaya, 1996). In the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) tissue viability service, a recent internal case load audit was completed for the Essex integrated care directorate. This audit identified 67% of the referrals are for venous leg ulcers. The audit also highlighted a year-on-year trend of increasing referral numbers from general practitioner (GP) practices and community nursing teams, with a 10% increase reported within the service from 2013/2014 to 2014/2015. The increased work load has led to a need to audit the service provision and find more efficient ways of managing the case load, with the emphasis on cost efficiency, wound healing, time saving and improving patient outcomes.