Sepsis hospital deaths rise by a third in two years

In the 12 months ending April 2017, there were nearly 16,000 deaths in hospital or within a month of discharge, where sepsis was found to be the primary cause.

Professor Sir Brian Jarman, director of the Dr Foster research unit at Imperial College in London, and who collected the data, believes overcrowded wards and staff shortages are partly to blame.

Sir Brian said “Some of those hospitals with a lower death rate have got particular ways of reducing mortality from septicaemia, which the others we hope might learn from, and also we hope that by given them this alert, within a month or two of the actual happening, they can actually get in there and do something quickly.”

The UK Sepsis Trust has recently led a screening focus for sepsis in the NHS. Chief executive of the Trust Dr Ron Daniels, said that sepsis was one of the most common causes of death in the UK and was responsible for killing up to 44,000 people each year.

Dr Daniels said “The treatment for sepsis, if it’s caught early enough, involves vey basic interventions – looking for the source of the infection, giving antibiotics.

“For every hour we delay in giving antibiotics, the patient’s risk of dying increases by a few per cent, so it’s essential that we spot it early and deliver the basics of care quickly.

“The biggest thing that’s important seems to be the number of staff – doctors per bed.

“One of the secondary important things is the overcrowding of hospitals. The level of overcrowding shouldn’t be more than 85% (bed occupancy) and it’s been going over 90% in recent years.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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