GOOD progress is being made in Gwent hospitals, says a health chief, on an ambitious plan to eliminate avoidable deaths and harm from sepsis.

Two years into the plan - focusing on testing and introducing a reliable process for recognising and responding to sepsis - more cases are picked up in A&E units, and a majority receive an agreed spectrum of treatment inside three hours.

The latter rate is at 60 per cent which, says an Aneurin Bevan University Health Board report “represents a high standard of treatment.”

And health board medical director Dr Paul Buss said the “’pick-up rate” for spotting sepsis in patients entering hospital has risen by 400 per cent.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s response to infection harms tissues and organs. If not spotted and treated early, it can cause shock, multiple organ failure, and death. It causes a minimum 37,000 deaths a year UK-wide, with around 1,800 in Wales.

Globally, effective systems to recognise and respond to sepsis have proved difficult to implement, due to its wide range of non-specific symptoms, which make it difficult to spot early.

Dr Buss said there has been a fall of around 20 per cent in deaths in Wales since the NHS here began to focus on it.

The Aneurin Bevan Collaborative on Sepsis, set up in partnership with healthcare improvement programme 1,000 Lives, is running the sepsis plan.

Treatment is based on a ‘bundle’ of six interventions, including giving high flow oxygen, intravenous antibiotics and fluids, and blood tests.

There have been reductions in unplanned critical care admissions at the Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall Hospitals due to earlier intervention.

The approach to identifying sepsis in Gwent A&E units is now being applied to a whole hospital - Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.

“There’s no doubt less patients are seriously sick with sepsis. We have made an impact on saving lives at the severe end,” said Dr Buss.

“At the very mild end, first onset, none of the trigger tools are sensitive enough to pick it up.”

There is thus a difficulty in treating for suspected sepsis too early, with a danger of over-treating patients who turn out not to have it.