The primary treatment for genetic haemochromatosis is venesection, a process of regular, controlled blood-letting similar to blood donation. Over the past 7 years, our charity has worked to improve patient safety, through the development of best practice guidance for venesection. You can read about our journey here.

An award-winning initiative

A Freedom of Information study in 2016 showed that fewer than 1 in 4 NHS hospital trusts had a defined clinical protocol for venesection. Consequently, people with genetic haemochromatosis experienced variations in standards of care during their treatment.

Haemochromatosis UK brought together healthcare professionals, volunteers, people affected by poor clinical practice, nursing educators and the general public to set about developing this new guidance in a collaborative manner to meet this unmet training need. 

This initiative has been recognised by a national Patient Safety Learning Award and was a finalist in the Abbvie Better Health Awards, organised in conjunction with the Patients Association.

Our venesection best practice guidance represents the culmination of over 7 years' work with over 300 nurses and other healthcare professionals to identify, document and coalesce best practice for venesection procedures. In early 2020, our work was endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing. It was re-endorsed by RCN in 2022 and in September 2024 was accredited* by the Royal College of Nursing having been fully revised & updated for the third edition.

Venesection Best Practice Guidance (3rd edition) - Haemochromatosis UK

Buy Print Edition (UK only)

Buy Kindle eBook (Worldwide)

Hardcopies may be borrowed for free from all Royal College of Nursing libraries, the British Library, the Ashmolean library (Oxford), Cambridge University library, Trinity College Dublin library. The book is also available for free loan from public libraries in the UK and Republic of Ireland, by requesting the ISBN: 978-1-3999-9165-0.

* RCN Accredited until 18 August 2025. Accreditation applies only to the educational content and not to any product. RCN cannot confirm competence of any practitioner.

Our Other Nursing Resources

Check out our other nursing resources, including our RCN-accredited eLearning Module (worth 4 CPD points).