​Did you see the BBC Panorama program about sepsis on television on Monday night? What did you think? Whilst the program, like any other form of media, was selective in what it said in order to tell a story I think it is good that it stirred up the debate around the management of sepsis again. Yes again, as the inadequate treatment of sepsis has been known about for over a decade! This is an area where some progress in the NHS has been made but more still needs to be done.
 
For me personally it was also great to see some of my old colleagues from Nottingham and the progress they have made in the management of sepsis; they have been working hard on this clinical problem for many years and take it very seriously. Their success is a result of their hard work and they deserve a lot of credit for what they have achieved.

The patient struggled in to the room obviously short of breath. They could barely complete a sentence without having to take another deep breath. The GP noted that this was the fourth visit in 2 months with the same type of problem; cough, shortness of breath and wheeze. The patient was known to have asthma already but the GP knew the danger of the “known diagnosis” and so started to explore alternative diagnoses rather than assume it was the “asthma as usual”.
 
The patient was clear that their inhalers weren’t working very well to control their symptoms and that whilst they had had some response from the steroids a previous GP had recommended the response hadn’t lasted; within a few days of stopping they were just as bad as before. On further questioning the GP found out that a couple of months ago the patient had sold their house and moved in to an old cottage which they were renovating. There had been lots of brick dust around and the GP started to wonder if this might be relevant to the patient’s illness.