NHS hospitals missing sepsis treatment targets

BBC Panorama has revealed that one in four NHS hospital trusts are failing to supply antibiotics to half their patients with sepsis within the recommended time.

Without prompt treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death, with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt recently saying that the NHS has ‘more to do’ to stop ‘preventable’ sepsis deaths occurring.

The Panorama findings, based on figures from 104 trusts over 12 months to March 2017, revealed that 78 per cent of patients are being screened and 63 per cent are getting antibiotics within one hour.

According to NHS data, 14 hospital trusts are only screening one in every two patients with signs of sepsis, with 37 per cent of patients needing antibiotics for sepsis not getting them within an hour.

Speaking to Panorama about the new figures, Hunt said: "There are preventable deaths happening but we're bringing them down and I think that the picture is much improved from two years ago. but there's a long way to go. Safety is at the top of the NHS's in-tray… and sepsis is, if you like, a litmus test as to whether we're getting there. And I would say that what it shows is that we are making progress but there is a lot more work to do."

Bradford Teaching Hospital (25 per cent), University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (26 per cent) and Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital (28 per cent) scored lowest on treating sepsis with antibiotics, while Liverpool Heart and Chest Foundation NHS Trust scored lowest on screening for sepsis - eight per cent.