Sepsis alert after 100 died when doctors missed signs

April 26

diseases consultant who is the trust’s clinical lead for sepsis, said: ‘It’s not just lives saved, it’s the whole morbidity associated with severe sepsis. It’s going to intensive care and then it having a much bigger impact on somebody’s life.’

Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust charity, said: ‘It’s fantastic that Addenbrookes are building a system that draws clinicians’ attention to the warning signs of sepsis according to accepted national scoring systems.’

Symptoms of sepsis include a high or low body temperature, chills and shivering, rapid breathing and a fast heartbeat. Children under five may also have blue or mottled skin and be difficult to wake.

Without antibiotics and other treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death.

A patient is 8 per cent more likely to die if they wait more than one hour before being given antibiotics after arriving in A&E. If they wait more than three hours, their risk of death goes up by 24 per cent.

Professor Tony young, of NHS England, said: ‘We are working harder than ever to spread the learning from cutting-edge local solutions further across the NHS.’

Figures compiled by Imperial College london showed sepsis was the cause of 15,722 deaths either in hospital or within 30 days of discharge, between April 2016 and April 2017. Thousands of other patients die in the community, in their own homes or care homes.