Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1026. To ask the Minister for Health the response from the critical care service of the Health Service Executive to patients critically ill with septicemia and severe sepsis; if he will provide the surviving sepsis campaign guidelines; if currently here 30% of all admissions to ICU have severe sepsis, and for these patients there is a 30% mortality of all such patients admitted to ICU; the number of people who die each year here from septicaemia; the further actions he will take to save lives; the national reduction targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33973/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Information available to my Department indicates that in 2013, the mortality rate of patients with a diagnosis of sepsis who were admitted to an intensive care environment was 28.8%. The corresponding figure for 2011 is 32.4% and 31.3% for 2012. It should be noted however, that this data is based on the discharge code of patients who had a diagnosis of sepsis and who were admitted to any type of intensive care environment ( including ICU, High Dependency Unit (HDU) ,Coronary Care Unit (CCU) etc) at some point during their hospitalisation. It is not possible to conclude that these patients were admitted to ICU as a result of sepsis, or that sepsis was the cause of death.

From January 2015 Ireland will adopt the Eight Edition of the ICD (International Classification of Disease)-10-AM classification which includes a revised Australian coding standard ACS 0110 for sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock. This is a new coding system being introduced internationally in relation to sepsis and Ireland will, for the first time, be able to systematically track its rates of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock.

The Health Information and Quality Authority's (HIQA) Report into the care and treatment provided of Ms Savita Halappanavar at University Hospital, Galway recommended that the HSE should develop a national clinical guideline on the management of sepsis and ensure that all hospitals put in place arrangements for formal staff training on the recognition and management of sepsis and on the clinically deteriorating patients including pregnant women in line with the guideline.

The report also recommended that the Department of Health should immediately review the current arrangements in place to ensure the national Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) is adequately resourced to support the national endorsement of key national guidelines.

Following on from the HIQA report, Minister Reilly requested four national clinical guidelines to be commissioned and quality assured through the NCEC as a matter of urgency for the Irish health system. These guidelines are a National Maternity Early Warning System Guideline, a National Paediatric Early Warning System Guideline, a National Sepsis Management Guideline and a National Clinical Handover Guideline. These guidelines will not only detail best practice but also to make recommendations for staff education and training. This is in order to provide for assurance of the competence of our doctors, nurses and midwives for these critical life-saving clinical issues. The guidelines will provide recommendations for national key performance indicators.

The NCEC has made significant progress to date on this project and all above guidelines are at an advanced stage of development:

- National Clinical Guideline - Recognition and Management of Sepsis in Ireland, provides guidance on the recognition and management of sepsis in Ireland. This encompasses adaption of the surviving sepsis campaign for the Irish setting.

- National Clinical Guideline - Irish Maternity Early Warning System-provides consideration for maternal sepsis.

- National Clinical Guideline - Handover Maternity Services - provides guidance for systematic handover processes.

- National Clinical Guideline - Paediatric Early Warning System - provides guidance for recognition of the deteriorating paediatric patient.