Party for animals | Van Esch questions about sepsis

Submission date:
October 17, 2023

Written questions from Member Van Esch (Party for Animals) to the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport about sepsis.

1. Are you familiar with the message “Without intervention, sepsis will become more common and deadly due to aging of the population”?[1] What is your reaction to this?
2. Did you know that sepsis is one of the deadliest conditions, claiming more lives every year than heart attacks or traffic accidents?
3. Did you know that every hour counts in the case of sepsis, so early recognition is crucial, but 4 out of 5 Dutch people are not aware of sepsis? What is your reaction to this?
4. Do you acknowledge that the fact that the Dutch know nothing about sepsis leads to a delay in treatment and that this delay increases the risk of admission to the ICU?
5. Are you aware of this in the UK?[2] And in Germany[3] There have been major public campaigns for years, and is that why the population there is more aware of sepsis than in the Netherlands? What is your reaction to this?
6. What is your response to Professor Cassager’s statement that if citizens were more aware of sepsis and asked questions about the symptoms of sepsis, it would save a lifetime?
7. Are you ready to launch a public campaign about sepsis in the Netherlands, so that more people become aware of sepsis? If not, why not and what other measures will you take to raise awareness of sepsis among the Dutch?
8. Do you realize that because sepsis can be caused by different pathogens, infections can start in different organs and consequences can also appear in different organs, sepsis often falls through the cracks of grant applications? If not, why not?
9. Do you acknowledge that the number of successful support requests is very low, especially compared to other diseases that have consequences such as sepsis? If not, why not?
10. How will you ensure more funding is available for sepsis research? For example, are you willing to create a sepsis-specific funding program? If not, why not?
11. Do you acknowledge that there is a lack of good recording of sepsis cases, where there are numbers of sepsis patients in intensive care, but not enough information on patients who have or develop sepsis in another hospital department?[4] If not, why not? If so, what measures would you take to ensure sepsis is better recorded?
12. Did you know that there is no DBC for sepsis, which means that aftercare for sepsis patients cannot be written down anywhere? What are you going to do about it?
13. Do you acknowledge that aftercare and support were not arranged for patients who developed sepsis but were not in the ICU? If not, why not? If so, how can you ensure that sepsis patients receive the follow-up care they need going forward?
14. For example, are you prepared to create a post-infection center of expertise so that, among other things, sepsis patients do not have to move from one specialist to another? If not, why not?
15. Did you know that the World Health Organization states that there is a need for national policies with an integrated approach in the areas of infections, antimicrobial resistance and sepsis?[5] If not, why not? If so, how will you follow up on this?
16. When will you come up with such a national approach, which will at least include registering sepsis cases, stimulating research, and sepsis awareness?