The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance recommending better targeting of antibiotics for suspected sepsis.
The guidance will help to ensure that the right patients at the highest risk of suspected sepsis will receive treatment as soon as possible.
Responsible for around 245,000 cases in the UK every year, sepsis is a life-threatening condition that causes the immune system to overreact to an infection that damages the body’s own tissues and organs.
NICE has recommended the use of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), an NHS England-endorsed system used to identify acutely ill patients, to assess people who are aged 16 years and over with suspected sepsis, who are not or have not recently been pregnant and who are in an acute hospital setting, acute mental health setting or ambulance.
This recommendation is also included in a partial update of NICE’s recognition, diagnosis and early management of suspected sepsis guidelines, as well as further advice on assessing patients most at risk, when to give antibiotics and identifying the source of infection.
It states that people who are graded by NEWS2 to be the most severely ill should be prioritised and should continue to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics within an hour.
The new guidance aims to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance, as it is expected that more people will be graded with NEWS2 at a lower risk level where treatment should begin within one to three hours and the diagnosis clarified before antibiotics are given.
Furthermore, the guidance will give healthcare professionals more time to investigate those who are less ill and receive the right treatment.
Dr Ron Daniels, founder and joint chief executive officer at the UK Sepsis Trust, commented: “The recommendation for GPs and ambulance services to consider how they give antibiotics to people that are at high risk of sepsis is increasingly relevant as transit times increase.”
Professor Jonathan Benger, chief medical officer, NICE, said that the “guidance will help ensure antibiotics are targeted to those at the greatest risk of severe sepsis” and “supports clinicians to make informed, balanced decisions when prescribing antibiotics”.