Blood-thinning drugs (anticoagulants)

Anticoagulant drugs are often referred to as blood-thinning drugs, and are medicines that prevent the formation of harmful blood clots by reducing our blood cells’ ability to bond together.

Your hospital consultant or GP may decide to start you on anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin as part of your treatment for conditions such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or after heart valve repair or replacement surgery.

If they do, you will be referred to one of the hospitals’ anticoagulant clinics, at St Richard’s or Worthing.

The clinic staff will advise you on when to have the regular blood tests you need to ensure you are taking the right dosage of medicine, and also keep you informed of what that correct dosage will be.

The blood tests you will have measure your International Normalised Ratio (INR), which is a measure of how much longer it takes your blood to clot when you are taking anticoagulants by mouth. The dosage you are asked to take will vary according to the results of these tests.

INR results by email

We are now able to advise you of your INR results by email, which is more convenient than a letter for many people and saves the hospitals money on stationary, postage and admin work.

To register for email results:

St Richard's patients

Email ac.rx@wsht.nhs.uk to confirm you would like results to be emailed to you. Don’t forget to include your name and contact number.

We will acknowledge your request with a test message and your most recent result, if we have it.

Please check the details of the test message and reply to it, letting us know you have received it OK and if any of the information in it is incorrect.

We will then email you all results in future.

Worthing patients

Please print out and complete the form below, and bring it into the clinic with your yellow book. We will then add your email address to your file.

Worthing Hospital anticoagulant clinic: Email results form - [9KB]

Going on holiday? Email us results of tests taken when you are away from home (St Richard's patients only).

Find out more

Contacting the clinics

St Richard's

The anticoagulant clinic at St Richard’s is in the outpatient corridor on the first floor of the main building. View map

Telephone 01243 831657
Fax 01243 831413
Email St Richard's anticoagulant clinic

Calling the clinic’s direct line will connect you to a message service, which is checked every morning Monday to Friday. When you leave your message, please make sure you include your:

Full name
Date of birth
Hospital number

You MUST NOT email us with clinical problems – always telephone if something is the matter.

Worthing

The anticoagulant clinic at Worthing is on the first floor of the North Wing. View map

Telephone 01903 285211
Fax 01903 285037
Email Worthing anticoagulant clinic

You MUST NOT email us with clinical problems – always telephone if something is the matter.