Health ombudsman – too many sepsis patients still dying due to unlearnt lessons

The UK’s health ombudsman has warned that too many people are still dying from sepsis due to “the same mistakes” highlighted over ten years ago.

Rob Behrens, who oversees NHS complaints, said sepsis diagnosis and treatment was still taking too long.

The UK Sepsis Trust estimates that around 48,000 people die each year from sepsis-related illness, “thousands” of which are preventable.

NHS England said it was working to improve sepsis management.

Sepsis develops when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection and starts attacking its own organs and tissues.  Symptoms can be similar to those of flu and include a high fever and severe breathlessness.

Ten years ago, the ombudsman looked into several sepsis deaths and concluded that patients were not being diagnosed or treated quickly enough, and a series of recommendations were made at the time.

However, in a new report, the service found that although some improvements had been made since then, “significant improvements” were urgently needed in order to avoid further deaths.

Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of The UK Sepsis Trust, said there was now a need for sepsis to become a “key priority” for healthcare, adding “Although progress was certainly made in the years following the report up until the time of the pandemic, not only is it clear that there is significant opportunity for greater improvement but we are also gravely concerned that attention to sepsis is being afforded lower priority in the wake of the pandemic and in an already emburdened NHS.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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