Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Promoting awareness and early recognition of sepsis are key elements of the HSE’s National Sepsis Programme.

While the initial priority of the Programme was raising awareness among healthcare staff, the focus has since moved the community. To support this, the Programme developed several patient focused resources, along with educational and clinical management resources for healthcare staff. The Programme undertook a number of activities in 2023 including the organisation of the 7th National Sepsis Summit in September.

My Department continues to work with the HSE to increase sepsis awareness. This includes a ‘Patient and Staff Stories’ project to capture the experiences of those affected by sepsis, which I am pleased to say will commence in 2024. It is hoped that the findings will drive improvements in sepsis practices across health and social care settings.

Following the announcement of the budget allocation for my Department, I will shortly be issuing a Letter of Determination to the HSE outlining my priorities and funding levels for 2024. This will be the basis on which the HSE will draw up its National Service Plan for 2024. It is not until the conclusion of this process that a detailed breakdown of New Developments expenditure will be available.

However, there is an ongoing significant increase in funding for nursing and consultants in a wide range of disciplines, and it is possible for individual clinical areas and hospitals to reallocate according to priorities.