Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase clinical awareness of sepsis.

Improved awareness and clinical recognition of acute deterioration has led to an increase in the number of people identified and diagnosed as at risk of sepsis. Health Education England (HEE) has launched multiple sepsis training toolkits, including training for general practitioner reception staff to spot deteriorating patients. NHS England encourages healthcare providers to adopt the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) as a screening tool for the recognition and treatment of sepsis in clinical settings. The NEWS2 tool has been rolled out across 98.4% of acute trusts and 100% of ambulance trusts in England.

To update and improve national guidance in line with new evidence, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are working with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) to implement their published recommendations for sepsis diagnosis and treatment from the ‘Statement on the initial antimicrobial treatment of Sepsis’, published in May 2022, which provides clinicians with a strong framework for clinical judgement and diagnosis of sepsis, ensuring antibiotics are used in a targeted and measured way. NICE is expected to publish the updated sepsis guideline, reflecting AoMRC’s recommendations, imminently.