NHS ‘needs warning system against sepsis’

EVERY NHS hospital should adopt an early warning system to prevent almost 2,000 needless deaths a year, including cases of sepsis, officials say.

Senior doctors said the standardised methods, which score patients based on factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and breathing, had been found to be particularly effective in detecting sepsis. The infection is the leading cause of avoidable death in hospitals.

Senior doctors said a consistent approach, with scores determining whether a patient needs checks from a nurse, doctor, or an assessment by a critical care team would ensure warning signs were seen and acted upon.

Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, said: “Air traffic control systems around the world use common standards and language to prevent disasters and the NHS, with the safety of millions of patients every year at stake, should be no different. If staff move between hospitals and end up speaking at crosspurposes, warning signs are missed and patient care can be compromised.” Health officials have told every hospital and ambulance service to adopt the same rules – called the National Early Warning Score (News) system – by 2019. Currently seven in 10 trusts do so.

If every organisation used the system, then 2,000 lives and 627,000 “bed days” could be saved every year, NHS England has estimated.

The system was developed by the Royal College of Physicians and has since been introduced by the US Navy, as well as in India, Europe and the US.

Under the scoring system, results are plotted on a chart, which decides the level of clinical care needed and the risk of deterioration.

A low score of 1-4 would lead to an assessment by a registered nurse, a medium score of 5-6 would prompt an urgent review from an acute clinician, such as a ward-based doctor. A high score of 7+ would see an emergency assessment by a critical care team and a likely patient transfer to a high dependency unit, officials said.

♦ The NHS has more than 100,000 vacancies, or nine per cent across trusts, with a shortage of 42,000 nurses and 11,000 doctors, Labour analysts claim.