Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in. When this petition came to me, I did not realise how serious sepsis was and I welcome the fact that the witnesses said there has been a 26% reduction in mortality rates. Going back to the what the Cathaoirleach said, I totally get what the HSE is doing within the medical structure but when I heard this first I wondered how I had never heard about sepsis. I did not know it was this serious or how fast it can happen.

Coming from the HSE's side of it, it was about having an awareness campaign. I know Dr. Henry mentioned social media and so on but I was thinking to myself that the majority of this is in medical settings and this is about just getting the news out. I know the HSE does not want to panic people either but it has the tools to raise awareness of this. I was asking myself if it is possible for the HSE to go into the likes of schools and stuff. It is like a lot of things; education is key. Education and information are vital tools because in the HSE's side of work it comes across so many different cases and it thinks to itself that it was not aware of a case or it did not know.

I am delighted we are discussing this in the committee. However, as I listened to the opening statement I thought that was all spot on but I wondered where the big surprise I was waiting for was. I was thinking it would be the schools or youth clubs. We should get it out and try to normalise the information. Is there a fear that the public would be panicked? Is there a fear that a young teenager in school might get a cut and think they could end up getting sepsis? Is there a way of getting the information out in little simple bullet points that do not panic people and that make people aware? My wife would kill me for saying this and she will kill me but I always say that prevention is better than cure. I know there is a lot in that but that is what was going through my head.