The New Modern Service Framework For Sepsis: A Turning Point For Patient Safety?

In Part 1, I looked at why sepsis remains such a difficult clinical emergency to recognise and respond to. In this second part, I consider the new Modern Service Framework for sepsis and whether it represents a genuine opportunity to improve patient safety.

What is the Modern Service Framework for Sepsis?

The MSF for sepsis is a new national framework published by NHSE, working with the DHSC. It sets out priority actions and aims, around which more detailed measures will no doubt follow. It aims to improve how sepsis is recognised, diagnosed, treated and managed across the NHS, with a stated ambition to support more consistent, high quality sepsis care by 2035. The framework has a particular focus on earlier recognition of deterioration, timely treatment, appropriate escalation, better use of data and learning, and improved outcomes for patients and families. It is hoped that these measures will reduce deaths, life-threatening complications, and the long-term consequences of sepsis across all patient groups by at least 25%.

For clinical negligence practitioners, this new framework is potentially important because it recognises many of the issues that routinely arise in sepsis claims: the difficulties of identifying sepsis early, the need for clearer pathways and clinical responsibility, the importance of rapid antibiotics where clinically indicated, and the consequences of missed opportunities to act when a patient is becoming seriously unwell. Its aims are laudable and evidently needed. However, the framework also raises a wider question: will national standardisation genuinely improve patient safety, or is there a risk that sepsis care becomes reduced to a checklist exercise? This practitioner’s view is that whilst checklists and screening or risk stratification tools provide a useful adjunct and helpful reminder for clinicians and nursing staff, they are ultimately ineffective unless they are accompanied by careful clinical judgement, proper staffing, senior review and a culture in which patient and family concerns are taken seriously.

In the next part of this series, I will look at why sepsis continues to give rise to clinical negligence claims despite national guidance, local pathways and screening tools, and why protocols alone are not enough to protect patients.