2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 12 March 2019.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 2:26, 12 March 2019

Can I call for a statement from the Welsh Government to the Trefnydd in respect of sepsis management in the health service? Many of my constituents have been alarmed to read that over the past three years, or between 2016 and 2018, there's been a significant increase in north Wales in terms of the number of sepsis related deaths: up from 151 in 2016 to 238 in 2018. Now, I know that hospital staff are much better now in terms of identifying sepsis, and that's certainly one of the reasons why more cases have been identified, but the number of deaths is very concerning, and I think that we do need to understand precisely the action that's being taken by the Government in order to raise further awareness and to treat people quickly when sepsis is identified. I know that my colleague Angela Burns, if she were here, would be banging the drum about this issue, given her significant interest in having suffered sepsis herself in the past. One of the things that she has called for, of course, is mandatory sepsis awareness training amongst front-line NHS staff, and I think that that would go a long way to reassuring some of my constituents that a greater effort was being made by the NHS in order to capture this very life-threatening condition.