A 'DELIBERATELY ambitious' initiative has been launched at the Great Western Hospital to save an extra 500 lives over the next five years.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has announced it is adopting “the latest clinical best practice” across all areas of the hospital as part of the launch of its 500 Lives initiative, which aims to achieve the target over five years by delivering safe, high-quality care and treatment.

The hospital said it is already seeing 100 fewer deaths each year compared to what is expected nationally, but is keen to reduce the numbers of patients developing sepsis after a third more patients than expected developed the condition in the twelve months from March 2014.

Dr Mark Juniper, clinical lead for quality, said: “Saving 500 extra lives in five years is deliberately ambitious but we believe it to be well within our reach.

“The fact that more people are now surviving life threatening illnesses, experiencing less avoidable harm or complications and better outcomes, is a direct result of the work our staff do each day to ensure that patients receive the best treatment possible.

“Safety is the trust’s absolute priority. We want local people to feel confident in the care and treatment they receive from us. 500 Lives is our commitment to the patients, friends and family who come through our doors every day.”

Over the next five years the trust will focus on reducing mortality rates and improving harm-free care, while also continuing with the good progress made through the trust’s own Sign up to Safety priorities.

One of these priorities is to identify and treat sepsis; an increasingly common condition triggered by infection, earlier and before life-threatening damage has been caused.

Between May 2014 and March 2015, 830 patients were identified with severe sepsis– a third more than had been expected.

Currently, 80 per cent of sepsis patients at GWH now survive, which is significantly better than the national average, of 65 per cent.

Specialist sepsis nurse Nic Lythell said: “My role in the trust is to identify cases of sepsis as quickly as possible and to ensure that all staff are familiar with the Sepsis Six, a set of internationally recognised steps that happen as soon as a patient shows signs of sepsis.

“Sepsis can take hold incredibly quickly and, if it’s not treated rapidly, it can prove fatal. The fact that more and more patients are surviving is a testament to the vital work that has been going on in recent years.”

The trust’s other Sign up to Safety Priorities include falls prevention, rescue of deteriorating patients, acute kidney injury and pressure ulcer prevention.

These were chosen as areas where improvements in clinical intervention or patient care can have the biggest impact on the patient’s outcome and mortality rates.

The trust’s commitment to safety was recently recognised by CHKS, the country’s leading provider of healthcare intelligence, when it was nominated for a Top Hospitals Award in the category of Patient Safety.