Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure protocols for diagnosing sepsis are applied across the healthcare sector.

Sepsis can be a devastating condition and patients rightly expect the NHS to be able to recognise, diagnose and treat it early. Clinicians are supported to recognise sepsis by using the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), now used in 98% of acute trusts and 100% of ambulance trusts in England.

Building on the latest evidence from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will publish updated national sepsis guidance in January 2024 reflecting a targeted and measured approach to the antimicrobial treatment and management of sepsis.