Shropshire hospital trust set to battle killer condition Sepsis
A campaign has been launched by the trust that runs Shropshire's two main hospitals to raise awareness of a condition that claims more lives every year than breast cancer, bowel cancer and colon cancer combined.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, has launched the campaign to raise awareness of sepsis.
Sepsis has been chosen as one of the areas SaTH will look at in the first year of its partnership with Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle.
The American hospital, which is recognised as one of the safest in the world, is working in partnership with five NHS hospital trusts to help deliver improvements in healthcare for local people.
This week, 110 members of staff at SaTH attended an event highlighting what is known as the Sepsis Six – a series of measures which should be delivered within one hour of a diagnosis of sepsis.
There are around 150,000 cases of sepsis in the UK every year with 44,000 people dying.
Sepsis arises when the body's response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. It leads to shock, multiple organ failure and death.
Dr Edwin Borman, medical director at SaTH, said: "Although sepsis is relatively uncommon, it can prove fatal and patients who develop the condition can deteriorate very, very quickly. We want to reduce that number."