THE number of pressure ulcers - commonly known as bedsores - developed by patients while in hospital in Gwent, fell by a quarter last year.

The reduction, to 308 compared to 413 in 2013/14, is the biggest in a single year, and continues a downward trend begun more than five years ago when Aneurin Bevan University Health Board introduced a programme designed to minimise hospital acquired pressure ulcers.

All adult wards in Gwent hospitals are included in the programme, which is now being used as a model for a project to focus on community acquired pressure ulcers, taking in care homes and ultimately, patients' own homes.

Pressure ulcers can lengthen a patient’s stay in hospital, and those who develop them are often older, more vulnerable patients for whom an ulcer can be an added complication of care with potentially significant ill-health effects in itself.

The health board considers all hospital acquired ulcers to be of concern, but the most serious - grades three and four - are subject to particular scrutiny, with individual cases reviewed and the circumstances investigated.

This rigour is designed to enable the circumstances of pressure ulcer development to be better understood, with the aim of preventing similar occurrences in the future.

In October 2011, the health board began to collect details of all pressure ulcers for all patients and from an increased number of hospital areas, replacing a single-day survey every month.

This initially led to an increase in the number of ulcers recorded, but gives a more comprehensive picture and enables areas of particular concern to be identified more quickly.

Ulcers of grade three and four can trigger Protection of Vulnerable Adult (POVA) investigations, but the latest health board figures show there has been just one grade three ulcer to date in 2015, and such an investigation was not required due to the patient's non-compliance with advice and treatment.

A project has recently begun in Newport on community acquired pressure ulcers, and a team of health board experts is also visiting nursing homes across Gwent to raise awareness among staff of pressure damage and the action required for its prevention.