A Good Hope Hospital consultant is changing the way treatment of blood poisoning is managed by health care professionals with a suite of new toolkits.

The toolkits, compiled by critical care consultant, Dr Ron Daniels, will provide guidance for professionals from a wide variety of healthcare roles including in GP surgeries, A&E departments, ambulances, and on acute and other Hospital wards on how to recognise and treat blood poisoning, otherwise known as sepsis.

Killing over 37,000 people alone in the UK, sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs.  It can lead to shock, multiple organ failure and death, especially if not recognised quickly and treated promptly.

The toolkits have been produced by the UK Sepsis Trust in collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians, the College of Emergency Medicine, The Royal College of Nursing, the College of Paramedics and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

They include details of The Sepsis Six – a list of six recommended actions to take for patients with sepsis, and handy boxes that set out aids for decision making in an easy-to-read format.

Dr Ron Daniels said: “Development of these toolkits is a major step toward improving the care of patients with sepsis.  Rapid identification and treatment is the most effective way of saving lives from this killer condition.  As part of our wider work with NHS England, these toolkits will help us to save an extra 12,500 lives every year in the UK.”

To view the toolkits, go to: http://sepsistrust.org/info-for-professionals/clinical-toolkits/