Report from the first pre-hospital sepsis conference

North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) recently hosted the first conference dedicated to pre-hospital sepsis care. This event was attended by a packed audience, with representatives from 11 UK ambulance services, speakers from three countries and leading experts in the field of pre-hospital care.

After a warm welcome delivered by Ashley Winters (NEAS chairman), Paul Fell (NEAS consultant paramedic) chaired the morning session, which was opened by Tracy Nicholls (East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAS) acting head of quality governance), who described the programme of work undertaken by EEAS to improve the sepsis care in their area.

This was followed by Mike Smyth (pre-hospital care fellow, University of Warwick), who discussed his work on the various tools that are used to recognise sepsis in pre-hospital practice. The lack of robust evidence for the screening tools currently in use and the need for further research were the key messages that came through.