Hi Louise,

We went for a different approach to sepsis boxes. Initially we had a MET trolley for deteriorating patients, which was a Bristol Maid trolley with everything on it to deal with a deteriorating patient except drugs or fluids. This was separate to the crash trolley and was really well received and utilised. Gradually people moved away from the set contents list though and some crammed so much in it was daft.
We needed to update our crash trollies across the Trust and took the decision to amalgamate the two concepts into one to reduce time to check/resock. So we now have a red 5 drawer Distinctive Medical Deteriorating Patient trolley - drawers are labelled ABCDE. A = airway roll, B = various O2 delivery systems & neb mask, C = everything for bloods, cultures (including forms & bags) cannulation, defib pads, D = drugs & fluids (triple therapy Abx - amox, met & gent), giving sets & everything needed to mix & administer the drugs, E = everything else (PPE).
This is really well utilised & meant we have 2 doses of the triple therapy in all adult areas. Paeds trolley is different.

Sadly, I have this a lot, it seems that the wards require a lot of support and education to keep up the use of the boxes. I guess we can but try, and maybe see it as a learning opportunity.

My fear is, that our current roll out of the boxes allows for each ward to individualise the boxes, rather than standardise them. I’m not sure how that will work in the long term.

Hi Louise

We have had sepsis boxes since 2012. They went out with a press release, the wards are not 100% compliant with the sepsis six, so we cannot take them away. They gather dust. We continue to educate and promote them.