1800 patients on venous registry

CoP venous registry ensuring the optimal results from vein treatments

The veins specialists at The Whiteley Clinic have now added over 1800 patients to the College of Phlebology Venous Registry.

The registry collects patient feedback for many years in the future.

This is completely different from patient satisfaction websites or patient reviews. Satisfaction websites or reviews only collect what patients think about a clinic visit or treatment. They do not collect the most important information – whether the treatment has worked in the medium or long term.

Many vein clinics provide cheap vein treatments, with minimal pain and in comfortable surroundings. Not surprisingly, they get many good reviews!

The trouble is that varicose veins, hidden varicose veins and venous disease is usually much more complex than it first appears. Hence cheap vein treatments often result in early recurrences.

Cheap vein treatments are cheap because corners are cut to reduce prices. This can be done in several different ways. Typical ones in the UK are:

• having doctors doing their own quick scans rather than using a specialist vascular technologist to look at all the possible veins in the legs and pelvis
• only checking and treating the main 2 veins (great and small saphenous veins) and ignoring any perforator veins, pelvic veins or more complex vein patterns
• not spending any money on research and development
• not spending any money on auditing results or being part of a registry
• not spending any money on training

So by doing the minimum possible, prices are kept low. HOWEVER – the chance of varicose veins coming back again is of course very much higher. If you don’t find and treat all of the problems, the chance the treatment will work in the medium and long term is low.

Patient results and the Venous Registry

Ever since the Bristol Heart Scandal in the 1980s, it has been known that only a registry can check whether patients get good results or not from a certain doctor, clinic or technique.

Although research tells us WHAT to do and to which veins and audits check certain groups of patients, only a registry assesses the outcomes from EVERY patient, as well as the medium and long term results of their treatment.

It is for this reason that The Whiteley Clinic has developed and introduced the College of Phlebology Venous Registry.

At The Whiteley Clinic, we know that our results are the best possible because of our research, developments, audits and training. All of our information is put into The Whiteley Protocol so that every patient gets the same treatment regardless of which of our specialists they see. Unlike cheap clinics where you get whatever the doctor present on that day prefers to use, The Whiteley Protocol ensures every patient gets the optimal treatment regardless of which doctor they see.

Our patients are then added (with their consent) to the College of Phlebology Venous Registry. This ensures that our patients know that we can be sure that we are continuing to get excellent results.

1800^th patient added to the registry

At The Whiteley Clinic, we are confident in our treatments and hence our long term results. Hence all of our specialists have signed up and taken part in the College of Phlebology Venous Registry. All our patients who consent to join will feedback their results every year. In this way, we can monitor our medium and long term results.

Currently, in the UK it is not a legal or professional requirement for doctors doing varicose vein surgery to join a registry. Hence doctors who are not confident that they are getting good results can avoid being monitored. They just don’t join the registry!

Hopefully, insurance companies and regulatory bodies will start to insist that doctors are monitored by the venous registry. In that way, patients will be able to have confidence that their outcomes will be monitored and doctors or techniques getting bad results will be identified.

Until this becomes a requirement, patients can look for doctors who are part of the College of Phlebology Venous Registry by looking out for the registry icon, and checking it is genuine by clicking through to the online list of venous specialists.

Link: https://www.collegeofphlebology.com/college-of-phlebology-venous-registry/