In Lanarkshire, there are an estimated 3,800 people with Hepatitis C and approximately 450 people living with HIV. Being diagnosed with one of these conditions is life changing, however with advances in treatment, both hepatitis and HIV can be permanently suppressed, meaning that people with these conditions can expect to live a normal life expectancy. […]
Improvement advisor Connie Sharrock on why reducing sepsis mortality is close to her heart
Raising awareness of sepsis is a cause close to my heart, least not because I am the improvement advisor for the Reducing Harm Patient Safety Sepsis Collaborative but also because I lost my sister to sepsis 4 years ago, 2 days after her 29th birthday. If I had known what I know about Sepsis then, what I know now, things may have turned out differently.
Today, the Sepsis teams from the Emergency Departments of NHS Lanarkshire plan to raise local awareness of sepsis with a series of events at each site to mark World Sepsis Day 2015. NHS Lanarkshire wants to Sock it to Sepsis.
Sepsis is a hidden killer, it is responsible for more deaths than lung cancer or breast, bowel and prostate cancer combined and it is the number one cause of maternal death in the UK. Sepsis is a complex condition that we are still striving to understand. It is one of the few diseases in the world that can kill a fit and healthy person within hours. It can strike anyone of any age, sex or background. It is a condition caused when your body overreacts to an infection, when sepsis strikes, the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks not just the infection but everything else around it, unchecked it can lead to multiple organ failure and death.
Sepsis is a medical emergency, and treatment includes antibiotics, fluids and oxygen. For each hour delay in treatment with intravenous antibiotics chances of survival reduce by over 7%. Treating sepsis with the sepsis 6 care bundle within the first hour of recognition can significantly increase chance of survival.
The incidence of sepsis is rising and over the last 10 years, incidence has increased by 8-13%. Early recognition of sepsis is essential to reduce mortality – Pilot teams in the Emergency Departments have been working hard to reliably identify sepsis and administer the sepsis 6 within 1 hour of time zero since 2012: now 80% of sepsis patients treated within our Emergency Departments receive antibiotics within 1 hour of time zero. We continue to strive for 100% reliability; this will take teamwork, determination, and early recognition of the septic patient.
Come along to our information stands to find out more and test your knowledge of sepsis for a chance to enter the prize draw. (12-2pm Monklands restaurant, Hairmyers Foyer, Wishaw Foyer). Together, NHS Lanarkshire will Sock it to Sepsis.
(Connie is pictured along with Martin Carberry and the Sepsis team)
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