Pan-London Paediatric Sepsis Network
The Pan-London Paediatric Sepsis Network brings together healthcare professionals and academics from acute, emergency and inpatient paediatric care, from across London and beyond. It aims to address clinical, medical, cultural and social challenges unique to the needs of children at the risk of sepsis.
Sepsis is a severe and life-threatening response to infection which can be hard to spot in its early phases. It is often preventable if an infection is identified early. But even when it has set in, it may be turned around if treatment is started soon enough. The diagnosis of sepsis in children is fortunately relatively rare, however approximately two or three children each day in the UK still die from this condition. The presenting signs and symptoms of sepsis in young children are very non-specific, making it challenging to identify – both for parents and medical professionals.
Spotting the Signs of Sepsis – Subtitled (English) from Health Innovation Network on Vimeo.
The Paediatric Sepsis Network was established in autumn 2017 to bring together healthcare professionals and academics from acute, emergency and inpatient paediatric care from across and beyond London. Delivered in partnership with the Health Innovation Network South London, the community aims to address clinical, medical, cultural and social challenges unique to the needs of children at the risk of sepsis.
Since its establishment, the Network brought together more than 100 healthcare professionals from 30 organisations to learn, debate and improve the care for children with sepsis. One of the key discussion points has been that despite repeated strategic reports since 2015 identifying system-wide deficiencies in the care that patients with sepsis receive, there is still lack of robust UK based epidemiological studies on the incidence and outcomes of sepsis in children. As an initial step to address this, the Network proposed to develop a system for data collection regarding the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of sepsis in the paediatric population in the emergency department setting.
Work on a pilot data registry across three London based centres started in August 2019. It aims to establish proof of concept and enable eventual roll-out to a wider region, providing much needed data and evidence to support evaluation of diagnostic criteria, interventions, planning and redesign of services.
Our next Pan-London Paediatric sepsis Network’s event will take place on 12 February, 2020, 1-4:30pm. Register your place here.
Resources
Relevant reports / publications
- Time to Act – Severe sepsis: rapid diagnosis and treatment saves lives, Health Service Ombudsman for England, 2013
- An avoidable death of a three-year-old child from sepsis, Health Service Ombudsman for England
- Just say sepsis, A review of the process of care received by patients with sepsis, NCEPOD, 2015 –
- NICE guideline Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management
- NICE combined algorithms and risk stratification tables for those with suspected sepsis (includes for those under 5 years)
- Patient safety alert, Resources to support the prompt recognition of sepsis and the rapid initiation of treatment, 2014
- The Lancet paper: “Sepsis hysteria: excess hype and unrealistic expectations“, 2019
- A response to the Lancet paper “Sepsis Hysteria” from the UK Sepsis Trust (please see under the heading – What about the letter to the Lancet by Mervyn Singer? – at the bottom of the page)
- National patient safety collaborative sepsis cluster guidance report, 2016
- RCEM Feverish Child National QI project report 2018/19
- The sepsis trust screening action tool: concerns about utility and application, Archives of Disease in Childhood 2019; 104: A131-A132, 2019
- Nice in theory, but what about in practice? Our experience of the new sepsis guidelines, Archives of Disease in Childhood 2018; 103:A21
- Sepsis guidance implementation advice for adults, NHS England, 2017
- Surviving sepsis campaign international guidelines for the management of septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction in children
Educational resources
- Remembering Rory: Sepsis and learning from error
- Think Sepsis – Health Education England programme aimed at improving the diagnosis and management of those with sepsis.
- RCGP Sepsis toolkit, including paediatric sepsis resources
- PIER Network’s Fontanelle podcast about paediatric sepsis
- The Sepsis Manual by UK Sepsis trust
- Spotting Sick Child toolkit – interactive tool for health care professionals, commissioned by the Department of Health and HEE
- RCPCH’s Paediatric sepsis podcasts by Dr Emma Lim, include downloadable learning points for each of the 9 episodes
- Re-ACT Talks: Spotting Sepsis in the Sick Child by Dr Jeremy Tong
- The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education’s sepsis gateway page where pharmacy professionals can access resources linked to paediatric sepsis
Safety netting advice
- Spotting the signs of sepsis film and digital pack of resources
- Spotting the signs of sepsis films in other languages Vietnamese – Urdu – Turkish – Sylheti – Somali – Russian – Portuguese – Polish – Mandarin – Hindi – Hebrew – French – Spanish – Cantonese – Arabic –
- Caring for children with fever at home
- Video by Melissa Mead raising awareness about sepsis
- Re-ACT Talks: The Effect of Criticism on Parents with Sick Children
- Paediatric patient stories and information leaflets from North East & North Cumbria PSC
- Regional sepsis patient information leaflet
- UK Sepsis Trust / PHE leaflet
Programme lead
