This week Conservative MP for Chesham and Amersham, Cheryl Gillan, writes to Bucks Free Press readers:

As chair of the all party parliamentary group on sepsis, I have been involved in the campaign to raise awareness of the need for a speedy diagnosis of this condition, which can prove fatal. 

It can affect people of any age, but sadly there have been some cases where very young children or babies have died.

In some of those instances, diagnosis took a long time, which is why the Sepsis Trust have campaigned so that health service professionals receive training to look out for this condition.

In July, therefore, I was very pleased to hear that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – NICE – have issued guidance so that all health professionals should think about the possibility of their patients having sepsis.

Research by the UK Sepsis Trust shows that there are about 150,000 cases of sepsis in the UK each year. About 44,000 people die every year as a result.

What happens is that when an individual develops an infection, the immune system can go into ‘overdrive’.

The body in effect overreacts to the infection and begins to sustain damage, which can lead to organ failure and then to death.

A report published last year showed that there were delays in identifying sepsis in about one third (36 per cent) of cases. Many hospitals had no formal protocols in place to recognise sepsis.

NICE has called for people who show signs of sepsis to be treated with the same urgency which is applied when patients have suspected heart attacks. 

The guidelines set out the symptoms which clinicians should check for, what tests should be used to come to a diagnosis, and also what tests can be used to monitor the patient’s condition. 

Furthermore, the NICE guidelines say that there should be speedy admissions to hospital where a patient is identified as being at high-risk from sepsis.

During our discussions, the members of our parliamentary group have also talked about the importance of members of the public being aware of the risk of sepsis and that no-one – whether a parent, a relative or a carer – should hold back from asking their doctor “Have you thought that this might be sepsis?”, which is a really important question to ask.