We had an excellent turnout for our third sepsis masterclass held in Taunton in early February, bringing together health professionals from across the region and with a particular focus on paediatric and maternity sepsis, as well as antibiotic stewardship.
A total of 66 attendees were at the event, representing 32 different organisations, exploring how we as healthcare professionals can fight the fight against sepsis.
The event opened with an extremely moving talk by Susanna Morrish who shared Sam’s Story, a heartbreaking account of her little boy who died from sepsis.
Other speakers included Dr Ron Daniels who talked about the work of the UK Sepsis Trust in awareness raising, Dr Mark Juniper from the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative on the NCEPOD 2015 sepsis report, and Dr Akash Deep from King’s College Hospital London on the challenges the recognition and management of paediatric sepsis. Marian Knight from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit and Dr Imogen Montague from Derriford Hospital Plymouth both explored maternal sepsis, while Dr Kordo Saeed considered Procalcitonin (PCT) and its application in sepsis, SIRS and localised infections.
The slides from the event can be viewed here and you can download the full event report here.
To find out more about our work to tackle sepsis in the West of England, please contact:
Ann Remmers
Patient Safety Programme Director
ann.remmers@weahsn.net
or
Nathalie Delaney
Improvement Lead
nathalie.delaney@weahsn.net
Every year in the UK there are 150,000 cases of sepsis, resulting in a staggering 44,000 deaths – more than bowel, breast and colon cancer combined. Sepsis is the biggest direct cause of death in UK pregnancies and affects about 10,000 children every year in the UK.
A recent report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) emphasised the need for early recognition to saves lives.
Attendees from across the South West and West of England are gathering today at the third sepsis masterclass in Taunton with a particular focus on improving care for children and mothers with sepsis. You can follow along discussions throughout the day on Twitter using the hashtag #sepsissavvy.
The BBC programme Trust Me I’m A Doctor recently covered sepsis with some powerful stories from survivors about the impact sepsis had on their life. Here’s a clip…
NHS England has published a cross-system action plan ‘Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis’, outlining a number of actions that will be taken across the health and care landscape. This report recognised the role of Patient Safety Collaborative, part of the Academic Health Science Networks, to support local organisations to identify and spread best practice. Today’s masterclass forms part of this work.
Dr Mark Juniper, a consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine, and Lead Clinical Co-ordinator of NCEPOD will be a speaker at today’s masterclass. Commenting on NHS England action plan, he said: “This is a really important report. If we all take action, fewer people will die from sepsis. All healthcare professionals need to be prepared to treat these patients. Improved recognition, assessment and treatment of sepsis will save lives. Reading this report and acting on its recommendations will help all of us to do this.”
The cross-system action plan for sepsis was published at the end of December by NHS England.
The report highlights the role of Academic Health Science Networks and Patient Safety Collaboratives in supporting work around sepsis across the country, and the West of England regional sepsis group got a specific mention.
Dr Mark Juniper, a member of the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative, said: “This is a really important report. If we all take action, fewer people will die from sepsis. All healthcare professionals need to be prepared to treat these patients. Improved recognition, assessment and treatment of sepsis will save lives. Reading this report and acting on its recommendations will help all of us to do this.”
Read the full report on the NHS England website.
