Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 31 January 2018.
Suzy, thank you very much for raising this important point. As well as raising this point, it would be worth mentioning the work of the cross-party group on sepsis, which has raised the importance of this, particularly across social care training as well, and I look forward to responding to that after discussion with my officials.
We're all very aware now of the heightened awareness of sepsis and the importance of early diagnosis as well as early treatment. It is noticeable that even with the rise in awareness and the rise in the number of people presenting with sepsis, particularly over the last year as well, and, of course, an increase in the number of our older population who are presenting with this, the number of deaths through sepsis is declining, and it may be part of the fact of the increasing awareness, the increase in training right across the board that we are doing on this. We know that not every death through sepsis is preventable, but we know that some are. So, that early diagnosis and treatment is absolutely vital.
Now, it's hard to draw firm conclusions at the moment from year-on-year figures. It seems to suggest that we are indeed doing something right in Wales with our training and with our approach. But I look forward to responding to the comments that have been made today, but also the work of the all-party group on sepsis, because we need to make sure it's working, not only across the health sphere, but across social work as well, so that we can make sure that, at every point, there is an opportunity to do very early diagnosis and have the early treatment, and continue the good work that we're doing.