Thousands of lives could be saved by urging unwell patients and their loved ones to ask doctors to check for sepsis, experts said as they announced a new campaign to raise awareness of the devastating condition.
Every year, sepsis, or blood poisoning, kills nearly a third of the 150,000 people it affects. But campaigners say better care could save as many as 13,500 lives, as well as up to £314m from NHS budgets.
After a report this month strongly criticised hospital bosses and doctors over the avoidable death of a 12-month-old boy from sepsis, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has agreed to help lead a campaign to encourage patients and doctors to look out for the symptoms of the condition.
The announcement came after Melissa Mead, whose infant son William died in 2014, and representatives from the UK Sepsis Trust (UKST) met Hunt at the Department of Health on Tuesday. Mead said she was “relieved and delighted” by the decision to launch the campaign.
“There’s going to be posters, there is going to be leaflets, there is going to be symptom cards, there is going to be a 90-second video which is going to be blanketed across social media to make sure we engage with the community when they are sitting on their sofas at home,” she said.
“It is really, really important that this is a campaign which continues to roll and have a journey and an evolution.
“Personally, I feel relieved because I’m here because William died but, equally, I’m stood here and we represent 44,000 people who die every year and 150,000 people who suffer with sepsis. This isn’t a one-off story, it affects so many people’s lives and it’s very important.”
Ron Daniels, chief executive of UKST, said the campaign was due to launch in mid-September. “This is being seen by the government as a priority, and an ongoing campaign. We discussed budgeting for next year, as well as for this year, and in the years beyond,” he said.
“What we are going to see is heightened awareness of the word ‘sepsis’, through the use of social media, direct marketing, posters in GPs surgeries, emergency departments and pharmacists, [as well as] the use of corporate partners to get the message out there.”
A major aim of the campaign, Daniels said, would be to prompt patients and their carers to ask: “Could it be sepsis?” He cited research published last year that found that where sepsis patients presented at hospital late, in more than 60% of cases it was because they had not contacted doctors.
“It wasn’t GPs missing it, it wasn’t ambulance services or 111 saying you’re fine to stay at home. It was people not picking up the phone to start with,” Daniels said. “And the delays were not a few hours, they were typically one to four days, and that can obviously be the difference between life and death. So it’s that piece of evidence that’s really spurred us to engage with the public, to get sepsis into their vocabulary, and empower them to ask the question.”
Sepsis can be triggered by any minor infection, or an injury as simple as a cut or an insect bite. Sufferers’ immune systems go into overdrive as they try to fight off the infection, causing their bodies to begin self-destructing by attacking their own tissues and internal organs.
Without early treatment, it can lead to shock, multiple organ failure, and death. But survivors also face serious consequences if they are not treated in time. Daniels said: “Between a fifth and a quarter of survivors have life-changing after effects. These can be physical. They can, in extreme circumstances, lose limbs. They can be more subtle physical problems like chronic fatigue or problems with muscle and joint pain.
“They can be psychological, which ranges from sleep disturbances, personality changes and anxiety through to post-traumatic stress disorder. And they can have cognitive problems. Around 15% of people who survive sepsis, particularly if they’ve needed intensive care, can’t perform as well as they did previously.
“What this means is that people struggle to return to work in their previous roles, and the psychological issues, as well as the physical issues, mean that people’s relationships are strained and relationships break down. Survival, if recognition has been delayed, can be life-changing and the potential consequences to the economy from this fiscal burden of people not being able to return to work [is] huge.”
Early symptoms of sepsis include fast breathing or a fast heartbeat, high or low temperature, chills and shivering. However, sufferers may or may not have a fever. Severe symptoms can develop soon after and include blood pressure falling low, dizziness, disorientation, slurred speech, mottled skin, nausea and vomiting.
Following the death of William Mead, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) said that doctors and nurses should treat people who show signs of sepsis with the same urgency as those suspected of suffering heart attacks. A separate report into the boy’s death criticised GPs, out-of-hours services and a 111 call handler who failed to spot he had sepsis caused by an underlying chest infection and pneumonia.
His mother said she hoped that the campaign, Nice guidelines, and the investigation into her son’s death would help to prevent future tragedies. “William died in 2014 and it was a year later that we received the NHS England report,” Mead said earlier on Tuesday.
“It’s taken seven months to reach this stage but, equally, you can’t put something out there that is not going to work and is not going to be engaging.
“Especially with the Nice guidelines, which came out last week, on sepsis, we’re in a position now we’re going to have joined-up writing and joined action and everyone is going to be thinking the same thing.
“I’m hoping today will be the last meeting, I’m not anticipating any more meetings.”
Sepsis campaign aims to save thousands of lives
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