A SPECIAL tool to improve early recognition and treatment of the life-threatening condition sepsis, which claimed the lives of 245 people in Withybush in just three years, has been launched today, September 13.

For September 13’s World Sepsis Day, Hywel Dda University Health Board (UHB) has launched the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) tool for use in the community and GP practices.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. It can be caused by something as simple as a cut or an insect bite, or an infection like pneumonia. It is also a risk following surgery, or for women who have just given birth.

NHS Wales became the first healthcare system in the world to implement the NEWS tool as the standard in all hospitals in 2012 but it has not been used by community nurses and GP practices until now.

NEWS enables clinicians and nurses to calculate a patient’s physical condition is at risk of deteriorating in a standardised and universally understood way.

Starting with Tenby Surgery and the Pembrokeshire District Nursing Team, the use of NEWS will be rolled out by Hywel Dda UHB across all district nursing teams and GP practices over the next 18 months.

During the 2014-17 period, Withybush saw 245 deaths, against 329 at Glangwili, and 105 at Aberystwyth’s Bronglais.

For Angela Burns AM, who chairs the Assembly’s Cross Party Group on Sepsis, raising awareness of sepsis is a very personal issue.

Mrs Burns battled against the disease, which nearly claimed her life, several years ago.

Angela said: “As a sepsis survivor myself I feel I have a duty to emphasise the importance of sepsis awareness.

“Sepsis can present in a number of ways from slurred speech and confusion, severe breathlessness, extreme shivering to mottled or discoloured skin. In children the signs can also include the child not feeding, vomiting repeatedly or not having a wee or a wet nappy for 12 hours. If a loved one is presenting one or more of these issues then please do not hesitate in calling 999 and asking whether ‘could it be sepsis?’

“These extra hours are vital to ensure that not only do you survive, but you survive well. That is why we are calling on the Welsh Government to engage in delivering a public awareness campaign.”

Mrs Burns has previously said: “Sepsis is one of the most awful of conditions and hits patients like a car crash. Very few people escape unscathed and yet it is entirely preventable which is so frustrating.

“A third of people who become infected with sepsis are likely to die, while a third survive but with life-changing injuries; and the other third, like myself, appear to have recovered on the surface but will carry the illness and its mental scars for years to come.”