Hospital sepsis failings still causing too many deaths, says watchdog

The UK’s health ombudsman has found that sepsis is still taking too many lives because of repeated hospital failings. Sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to an infection – is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals, causing an estimated 48,000 deaths annually in the UK. Although there has been some progress on recommendations given in a report released a decade ago, the service said “serious failings are still happening” and significant improvements are “urgently needed”. Rob Behrens, who handles NHS complaints, also said that the NHS “needs to listen to patients and their families when they raise concerns”. Last month the parents of Martha Mills, who died of sepsis in hospital days before her 14th birthday, launched a campaign for “Martha’s rule” to be introduced in the NHS, which would give patients and their families the right to seek an urgent second medical opinion.

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