Bereaved mother meets Jeremy Hunt in fight to improve sepsis care

A bereaved mother has called on Jeremy Hunt to implement a package of measures to improve sepsis care to prevent deaths like that of her son.

Melissa Mead , whose son William died after medics failed to spot he had sepsis, said she had discussed the possibility of an awareness campaign about the condition, better training for medics and the sharing of patient records with the Health Secretary.

But she implored him to implement the measures sooner rather than later in order to prevent more needless deaths from sepsis.

The comments come after Mrs Mead and The UK Sepsis Trust came out of a meeting with key health officials, including Mr Hunt, to discuss what can be done to improve the care for patients with sepsis.

Last month, a report into the death of 12-month-old William criticised GPs, out-of-hours services and a 111 call handler who failed to spot he had sepsis caused by an underlying chest infection and pneumonia.

"There was lots of talk about how things can change and what can change but we actually need to make sure now that happens ASAP," she said.

Mrs Mead said the sharing of patient records, specialist sepsis training for GPs and other health professionals and a public health campaign were all discussed in the meeting.

"He definitely seems to be interested in a public health campaign but it is about tying him down and making sure he follows it through and that is absolutely what I am going to be doing," she said.

"I want more, I want him to commit and I want him to commit sooner rather than later. I am happy and I am content that he is taking it on board but it does need to happen sooner rather than later."