The next petition is PE1621, by James Robertson, on sepsis awareness, diagnosis and treatment. Members have a note by the clerk, along with submissions by the Scottish Government and the petitioner.
The Scottish Government indicates its support for a public-facing campaign to raise awareness of sepsis and provides some thoughts on how that might be achieved. It also appears to be confident that there would be no unintended consequences, which was a concern that was expressed by some health boards. The Government does not consider that a staff-facing campaign is required, and it provides its rationale for that position.
The petitioner welcomes the Scottish Government’s support for the public awareness campaign, but raises specific questions in relation to the view that a staff-facing campaign is not required. They are set out in part 1 of his submission.
Do members have any views on what action to take on the petition?
I note an interest, in that the petitioner is my constituent.
I think that we should take forward the petitioner’s questions about the Scottish Government’s response. Basically those questions ask for more detail about the continuing work on the awareness and management of the Scottish patient safety programme—what it would entail and how its impact would be measured. He is seeking more detail on where sepsis is included in the life support training programmes and undergraduate training programmes across the country. It would be helpful to know what is being taught in relation to sepsis in the early stages of staff education and about the consistency of that teaching among health boards.
I think that that issue is vital to the awareness campaign, so I propose that we write to the Scottish Government to ask it the questions that the petitioner is asking.
I am pleased that the Scottish Government supports the awareness campaign, but the petitioner has raised a number of questions that require further clarification, as Rona Mackay highlighted.
The salient point in the Scottish Government’s response is its highlighting of the point of the UK Sepsis Trust that a similar awareness-raising exercise in England has not resulted in extra workload for health boards. As we have read in the submissions, that has been a concern of a number of health boards in Scotland, but the situation in England suggests that there has not been an increase in workload. That is a salient point that should be on the record.
Absolutely—I agree. If there are no other comments, will we write to the Scottish Government, as suggested by Rona Mackay? We will have an opportunity to further reflect on the petition once we get a response.
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