MORE patients are dying from sepsis than anticipated at 28 NHS trusts in England reports the MailOnline.

Deaths from the silent killer at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow are 38 per cent higher than expected over the past six years.

The expected deaths was: 495. The number of actual deaths was 552.

The NHS denies excess deaths are necessarily avoidable, saying the rate given for each trust is based solely on a national average.

Officials argue data a higher than expected number of deaths at any trust is just a ‘smoke alarm’, and not proof of poor care.

The UK Sepsis Trust’s chief executive, Dr Ron Daniels, said: ‘It’s unacceptable for survival from sepsis to remain a postcode lottery.’

The data comes as the heartbroken family of an economics student have told how she died suddenly of suspected sepsis.

Millie Wyles died on August 21 at St Thomas’s Hospital after medics desperately battled to save her for four days.

NHS Digital now releases its Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator, or SHMI, data every month for the previous calendar year.

The report looks at the number of fatalities observed, compared to what would be expected according to national averages.

It compares the overall number of deaths from an array of conditions, including sepsis.

Eminent hospital death rates professor, Sir Brian Jarman, crunched the statistics together for each NHS trust in England over the past six years.

Data showed there were 117,439 recorded deaths with sepsis listed as the primary diagnosis in hospital or within 30 days of discharge between April 2013 and March 2019. NHS Digital says this may not necessarily be the cause of death.

There were around 3,750 more of such deaths than expected across all 28 of the trusts that recorded an excessive number of fatalities.

Dr Daniels added: ‘The figures are a cause for potential concern at the 28 trusts who seem to have a higher than average recorded mortality rate.

‘It’s important to note that practices in coding vary between hospitals, so this doesn’t necessarily mean all the hospitals named are worse than others.

THE 28 TRUSTS WHERE MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING THAN EXPECTED FROM SEPSIS

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS T – 11.5%

Southend University Hospital NHS FT – 14.3%

Kingston Hospital NHS FT – 13.5%

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS FT – 9.3%

York Teaching Hospital NHS FT – 10.5%

Aintree University Hospital NHS FT – 7.1%

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS T – 10.7%

Barnsley Hospital NHS FT – 13.7%

The Rotherham NHS FT – 17.1%

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS FT – 18%

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS T – 10.1%

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS T – 10%

Wye Valley NHS T – 14.8%

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT – 6%

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT – 38.5%

% is above national average

Great Western Hospitals NHS FT – 11.4%

The Dudley Group NHS FT – 18.5%

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust – 10.7%

Medway NHS FT – 9.7%

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS T – 15.8%

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS FT – 26.4%

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS FT – 11.7%

East Kent Hospitals University NHS FT – 18.2%

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS T – 22.8%

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS T – 20.3%

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS T – 14%

County Durham and Darlington NHS FT – 15.9%

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS T – 24.3%

‘But those trusts need to urgently examine their practices, their coding and identify whether there is a real cause of concern.’

East Kent Hospitals University NHS FT recorded the most excess sepsis deaths (416), with rates being 18.2 per cent higher than expected.

In terms of total excess septicaemia deaths, it was followed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (331) and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (291).

NHS England said official data shows there were fewer observed deaths than was expected in 2018/19.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Sepsis is devastating but good progress is being made on identifying suspected cases and improving outcomes across the NHS.