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Sepsis awareness
Following World Sepsis Day last month, the critical care outreach team at our Trust recently held an awareness and fundraising day about this life-threatening condition. During the day clinical staff were urged to consider the risks of sepsis and how they could improve patient safety.
Sepsis is a serious condition that can initially look like flu, gastroenteritis or a chest infection, and is the result of a serious complication of any infection. Also known as blood poisoning, sepsis is the reaction to an infection in which the body attacks its own organs and tissues. Although it is a potentially life-threatening condition, it can be easily treated if caught early.
The Trust’s sepsis champions - individual staff members highly-trained in the details of sepsis recognition and treatment - distributed informative leaflets and reminder cards highlighting the six signs of sepsis to clinical staff, as well as manning a drop-in information stand in the staff café. They also organised a staff cake sale which raised more than £100 for The UK Sepsis Trust.
However, at WSFT sepsis is a priority all year round. Laura Cardy, sepsis lead for the critical care outreach team at WSFT, said: “It’s so important to raise awareness of sepsis in hospitals throughout the country; sepsis kills at least 44,000 people a year in the UK, which equates to one life every 3.5 seconds. This is more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined.
“At WSFT we don’t just focus on sepsis once a year - we have been delivering targeted sepsis teaching to all levels of clinical staff since 2011.
“We host six dedicated sepsis training days annually and the team provides impromptu teaching whilst out and about on the wards. We also include sepsis teaching as a key feature in a number of other courses we run and in all mandatory training sessions for clinical staff.”
For the first quarter of this year (April to June) the Trust’s screening of sepsis in emergency departments was 99%. For inpatients it was 94%. The national standard is 90%. The Trust encourages its teams to raise awareness internally of various conditions in a bid to improve and do things better, and to ensure the safe, effective care and treatment of its patients.
Early symptoms of sepsis in older children and adults may include a high temperature (fever) or low body temperature, chills and shivering, a fast heartbeat and/or fast breathing.
Visit www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-poisoning for more information about the symptoms and treatment of sepsis in adults and children. Seek medical advice urgently from NHS 111 if you or someone you know has recently had an infection or injury and has possible early signs of sepsis.
If sepsis is suspected, you'll usually be referred to hospital for further diagnosis and treatment.
Severe sepsis and septic shock are medical emergencies. If you think you or someone in your care has one of these conditions, go straight to A&E or call 999.
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