A new toolkit from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the UK Sepsis Trust will help doctors recognise and treat sepsis on acute care wards.
Patients admitted to hospital with severe sepsis are five times more likely to die from this than those admitted with a heart attack or stroke, and it causes 37,000 deaths in the UK each year. Often, sepsis is not recognised quickly enough and patients are not given antibiotics and other treatment in time to save lives.
The toolkit is the ninth in the RCP series of Acute Care Toolkits, and also forms part of a suite of toolkits organised by The UK Sepsis Trust that cover the care of patients with sepsis in a wide variety of clinical settings - in an ambulance, GP surgeries, A&E and other wards in hospitals. The toolkits are part of a major new focus within the NHS to improve the care of patients with sepsis.
The RCP toolkit is specifically designed for acute care wards, and covers:
- how to recognise sepsis
- which patients should be screened for sepsis
- what care pathways to use
- when to review and escalate care, eg when to transfer the patient to a high dependency bed
- who should be making the decisions about care, particularly for the frail older patient.
The toolkit includes details of The Sepsis Six – a list of six recommended actions to take for patients with sepsis, and handy boxes that set out aids for decision making in an easy-to-read format.
Dr Ron Daniels, author of the toolkit and chair of The UK Sepsis Trust, said:
This collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians is a major step toward improving the care of patients with sepsis. Acute Medical Units are key to the rapid identification and treatment of this killer condition. As a core part of our suite of toolkits and our wider work with NHS England, this toolkit will help us to save an extra 12,500 lives every year in the UK.
Dr Frank Joseph, RCP acute care fellow and acute care toolkit series editor, said;
As the acute take becomes busier and patients present with increasing acuity of illness, early and rapid identification and treatment of sepsis is paramount to prevent death from life threatening sepsis. This toolkit, as part of a wider programme of collaborative work with the UK Sepsis Trust, is aimed at providing guidance and focussing the required attention and resource in Acute Medical Units to improve care and outcomes for those presenting with sepsis.
Download Acute Care Toolkit 9: Sepsis
For more information, please contact Linda Cuthbertson, head of PR, on 0203 075 1254 / 0774 877 7919, or email Linda.Cuthbertson@rcplondon.ac.uk