22/12/2025
12 Days of MMPS: Day 10 🎁
"Merry Christmas from the Leeds Anticoagulant Service Pharmacy Team!
Our Pharmacy Technicians, Vicky, Fi, Lynne and Jade, and Pharmacists, Marie, Kimrin, Tsz, George, Amy and Katherine, have been working hard this year supporting our patients on anticoagulation. We are very grateful for the support from the TRACT Pharmacist Team and Angela (Advanced Clinical Pharmacist) - thank you 😊
The team work alongside medical, nursing, admin, pathology and phlebotomy colleagues to look after Leeds patients on Vitamin K antagonists (mainly warfarin but also acenocoumarol and even phenindione - the most expensive anticoagulant ever!) who are aged 16 and over. Big shout out to the Paediatric Pharmacy Team who look after the younger patients!
These drugs need frequent monitoring as they are affected by lots of things, such as changes in diet, alcohol, and being unwell, which can increase or decrease the levels in the body. This is checked by an International Normalised Ratio (INR) test. Common Christmas anticoagulation questions involve whether you can have cranberry sauce while you are on warfarin (yes but not ladleful’s) and whether brussels sprouts will affect the INR (yes if you eat a lot or if they are the only green things you ever eat, but if you actually like them have a few). You can imagine this time of year keeps the team busy!
The Pharmacy Technicians go out to clinics across Leeds to see patients as close to home as possible, from Rothwell to Otley, Hunslet to Yeadon and many places in-between. They will discuss the INR results with the patient and make a plan for their dose and next appointment. They also run a successful self-testing service where they will train patients to test their own INR and call in the results. They have recently started a pilot in-reach project with the rest of the multi-disciplinary team, helping the medical teams on elderly and oncology wards manage warfarin more safely.
The Pharmacists work in outpatient clinics at St James's, seeing patients new to warfarin, that have unstable INRs, that have come out of hospital, or need to stop warfarin for a procedure and receive low molecular heparin instead. Shout out to the Pharmacy Bridging Clinic Team who see those patients needing their warfarin stopped for surgery under a general anaesthetic! The Pharmacists also discuss different anticoagulant options with patients, monitor those who may need both direct oral anticoagulants and low molecular weight heparin, and give advice to primary and secondary care on anticoagulation.
We are a friendly team who enjoy helping our patients stay as safe as possible on the right anticoagulation for them. If you want to come and see what we do we’d love to show you.
Thank you to all that have supported us this year - have a very happy Christmas and a great 2026!"
