Venous thromboembolism has long been recognised as a potentially avoidable cause of significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalised patients. With national recommendations awaited there have been clear instructions from the department of health that steps need to be made at a local level to increase awareness and address the problem prior to the expected completion of the NICE guidelines in 2007. We demonstrated an improvement in the prescription of thromboprophylaxis following implementation of simple and inexpensive changes in our department.