Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital-borne cases of sepsis have been recorded in each of the last five years.

Data on the number of hospital-borne cases of sepsis is not collected. Data on the number of Finished Admissions Episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis in each year from 2013/14 to 2016/17 are available in the table below.

Sepsis is a devastating condition that we need to get better at spotting across the National Health Service. By raising awareness and improving clinical practice we will save lives in the fight against this horrible illness. Better awareness has led to more cases of sepsis being detected across all age groups. We estimate that our cross system efforts since 2015 have saved over a thousand lives but we know there is more to do and this is why a new action plan was launched in September 2017 to ensure the NHS is on the highest possible alert to tackle this silent killer.

Number of FAEs with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis in each year from 2013/14 to 2016/17

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 19 secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.