The third roundtable debate of the European Network for Safer Healthcare was organised by Health First Europe in the European Parliament on 25 September 2019. Kindly hosted by MEP Simona Bonafè (S&D, Italy), the meeting brought together health stakeholders, national representatives and the European Commission to exchange best practices on how to better tackle the burden of sepsis and to discuss joint efforts that need to be in place to improve sepsis prevention, diagnosis and early treatment.
Sepsis is a major public health emergency due to its high mortality and economic cost. As emphasised by MEP Bonafè, “Sepsis is a global health crisis and a major challenge for patient safety. Sepsis is a global killer, accounting for 7 to 9 million lives lost every year (equivalent to 1 death every 3.5 seconds). In Europe alone, it is conservatively estimated that more than 3.4 million individuals develop sepsis each year, of whom 678,000 die”.