Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of treatment provisions for people diagnosed with sepsis.

We have made significant progress since our focus on sepsis increased in January 2015.

Public Health England led work on a public awareness campaign which was developed in collaboration with the UK Sepsis Trust and will help parents decide when to seek medical help. The campaign was launched in December 2016 and over a million leaflets and posters have already been distributed to general practitioner clinics, hospitals and other public places.

In July 2016, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its comprehensive guideline ‘Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management’ covering all populations. Building on this guideline, NICE is currently consulting on a Quality Standard to further improve the quality of care for people diagnosed with sepsis.

Through the national Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) scheme, NHS England is providing a financial incentive for systematic screening for sepsis of appropriate patients and, where sepsis is identified, to provide timely and appropriate treatment and review. This has been in place since 2015. Data provided by NHS England show an increase in Emergency Department assessment for sepsis from 52% to 85% in the 18 months since the CQUIN started, timely treatment increased from 49% to 62% in the same period.

Further work currently underway in NHS England include a Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework on highlighting the importance of sepsis education for health professionals. This is now in the final stages of approval, with implementation expected shortly. NHS England is also leading work on an update of its cross-system Sepsis Action Plan.