Minister ‘certainly will’ highlight the plight of Sepsis Warriors
The Sepsis Warriors are on the trail to bring their campaign to the fore when Ireland assumes Presidency of the EU Council on July 1 next year.
Sinéad O’Reilly, her brother Patrick, Cathriona Cahill and Hannah Tormey addressed TD’s and Senators in the AV Briefing Room at Leinster House on April 3, when they shared personal stories about close family members who developed sepsis, some of sadly dying. They called for an entire reform on how the Irish healthcare system deals with the potentially fatal illness.
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt after meeting with them, Minister for State Niamh Smyth said she “certainly will” help the local group’s campaign.
“Anything I can do to try and use the opportunity of the European Presidency to highlight the plight of the Sepsis Warriors in relation to creating that awareness for sepsis, I certainly will,” she said.
‘Staggering’ stats
Minister Smyth said the “staggering” statistics given by Sinéad, Cathriona and Hannah on the day “resonated” with her “and everybody else who attended .
“They have experienced the worst possible outcome, which is a fatality in their family,” Minister Smyth said of Cathriona and Sinéad.
The Minister also said Hannah made a “very strong” case for people with post sepsis illnesses and “the lack of services” for those coping after.
“For those who have come through sepsis, life is not normal for them again, it has a long-term impact on their social life, a long-term impact on their day-to-day lives.”
Deputy Smyth said the government will determine how “we as a government can put measures” to support families and individuals who’ve had sepsis.
“They are all things that I will certainly take on board as a government TD and as a government Minister.
“I think they made a very strong case in Leinster house that day,” she added.
Plans are already underway to bring the Sepsis Warriors before the EU’s Petitions Committee.
She said this would give the warriors a higher-up “platform” to give their accounts and speak on the importance “early detection”.
“There is a keen interest in this whole area [sepsis] with them and it’d be the best opportunity we have of getting them on to the European Presidency agenda here in Ireland for 2026,” said Deputy Smyth.
“I have already been speaking with my colleagues to see how and how quickly we can go about that,” she explained. “I will be doing my very best to get the Sepsis Warriors in ahead of the committee,” she pledged.
Action plan on sepsis
Meanwhile, in response to a query from The Anglo-Celt , a spokesperson from the HSE said The Action Plan on Sepsis 2024 – 2029 is “currently going through the approval process” within the HSE and “will subsequently be published.”
The Sepsis Warriors are also campaigning in the hope of changing policy to allow for new diagnostic machines to be installed in more Irish hospitals to detect bacteria and its type and the level of it within a person’s blood within 45 minutes.
By comparison, blood cultures take 48-72 hours to come back. Sinéad says such investment would also help determine the most appropriate antibiotic treatment quicker.
HSE reply
In response, a HSE spokesperson said: “Although there are many such novel tests that produce interesting results none, as far as we are aware, have changed practice internationally by significantly increasing sensitivity and specificity and improving patient outcomes without harmful unintended consequences.”
The spokesperson went on to say “all HSE hospitals have diagnostic systems and processes in place to detect infecting microbes, which meet international best practice standards.”
They added that “sepsis detection and diagnosis remains extremely challenging internationally”.
“Teams are innovating constantly to try and increase the diagnostic accuracy of novel tests,” the spokesperson continued.
“Any new laboratory techniques would need to go through a rigorous process of international peer review prior to being accepted as best practice.”
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