New sepsis toolkit from the Royal College of General Practitioners

28 Sep 2016

The new Sepsis toolkit from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) provides a collection of tools, knowledge, and current guidance to support the identifying and appropriate management of patients with sepsis. The toolkit is aimed at GPs and healthcare professionals assessing people in the community with acute infection. The resources also include information for patients and those close to them to look for when concerned about a sudden deterioration in a person’s health in the presence of infection.

Sepsis is a rare life threatening condition that can develop rapidly from what might be otherwise innocuous infections. Recognising it at an early stage among the huge number of ordinary infections can be a challenge even to experienced clinicians. The RCGP recognises the importance of better detection and prompt action in reducing the burden of sepsis.

Sepsis affected 123,000 people in England in 2014, resulting in approximately 37,000 deaths. 70% of cases derived from an infection developed in the community. It is estimated that there is potential to reduce deaths by up to 10,000 per annum by the optimisation of care.

We encourage our members to share this resource widely as it may be of help in many fields of care.

Access the toolkit.