How Mail led the way on sepsis

THE Daily Mail’s End the Sepsis Scandal campaign was launched in 2016 after the death of oneyear-old William Mead.

He developed sepsis in 2014 following a chest infection but his symptoms were missed by GPs, out-of-hours doctors and the NHS 111 helpline. His family, from Penryn, Cornwall, were repeatedly told ‘not to worry’.

Sepsis is the leading cause of avoidable death in the UK, affecting an estimated 260,000 a year and killing at least 44,000.

The campaign led to an awareness drive launched by then health secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2016, which included telling pregnant women about sepsis signs, new training for doctors and nurses, and millions of posters and leaflets.

It also led to the NHS introducing new rules in 2017 recommending that all patients arriving at hospital with possible sepsis should be treated by a senior doctor within an hour.

And last week the Mail reported that a text message system which alerts doctors to cases of sepsis is revolutionising the fight against the condition.