Canada must put together plan to tackle sepsis, researchers warn

Adrian Ghobrial has the latest on researchers calling on Ottawa to help fix a significant training and standards gap for health-care providers.

It’s a sudden, silent killer that some nurses and doctors are ill prepared to diagnose, according to a group of Canadian researchers.

“Every physician completing their training in Canada needs to know what sepsis is, and presently that’s not the case,” said Dr. Kali Barrett, a Toronto-based critical care physician.

Barrett is part of a team of researchers who’ve completed a research review that investigates sepsis policies, guidelines and standards across Canada.

They concluded that most provinces, including Ontario, don’t have any concrete guidelines for health-care providers to follow, and that accreditation and training standards are also falling short.

In short, the peer reviewed paper, which has yet to be published, is calling on “the urgent need for a coordinated sepsis national action plan.”

Sepsis can occur when the body’s immune system is attempting to fight off an infection, which then triggers a reaction that can lead to severe organ damage, or even death.

Barrett says a quick diagnosis and antibiotic treatment are critical for survival.

“Someone can go from okay to really sick in a matter of minutes,” said Barrett.

In 2020, a report estimated that 75,000 cases of sepsis occurred in Canada annually, leading to roughly 18,000 deaths on average each year.

In recent months, CTV News has sat down with two husbands who each lost their wife after they gave birth at two separate Ontario hospitals. In each case, the cause of death was linked to sepsis.

Last August, speaking from his home in Brampton, Ont., widower Gurinder Sidhu told CTV News that he and his wife begged for help, but their cries to a student nurse and a rotation of doctors weren’t taken seriously until an infection became visible on his wife’s leg.

“Sepsis is a race against time, but doctors never started the clock,” said Sidhu.

Barret is one of many now calling on the federal government to work with provinces in the race to save lives.

“My fear is that we’re going to have these stories in the media about people who have unnecessarily died from a potentially preventable sepsis death,” shared Barrett.

CTV News asked Health Canada if they’re open to standardizing sepsis detection guidelines across the country.

“The creation of, or changes to, hospital standards fall under the guise of Accreditation Canada,” a health agency spokesperson said in an emailed response. “Accreditation is a voluntary process for hospitals, which fall under the jurisdiction of provinces and territories.”

According to Barrett, however, there are national agencies that can bring about change.

“There are national bodies like Accreditation Canada or Physician Training Standards that are national in scope and we can address policy changes at those places,” she said.

Health Canada also shared that they feel that existing policies related to the prevention and control of infectious diseases have contributed to a reduction of sepsis.

But for families who’ve lost loved ones, that statement doesn’t go far enough.

“How come it’s not being taken seriously in the hospitals?” Sidhu said. “How come proper sepsis controls aren’t put in place? All of these questions need to be answered if we really want to prevent another tragedy.”