The March 19 submission to the Tasmanian government community budget consultation from said that all but Tasmania had acted upon a national action plan delivered by the Australian Sepsis Network and George Institute in 2018.

The Examiner viewed the report in the wake of a coroner's report saying the January 2018 death of Dilston man Graeme Charles Davis, who developed sepsis after surgery at Launceston General Hospital, was "avoidable".

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Since 2017 Tasmanian coroners have reported on at least five deaths in which sepsis was a factor.

In the budget submission the group, started by a cohort of Tasmanians who have lost friends to sepsis, called on the state government to "fund a state wide, health service wide sepsis management program".

A National Sepsis Program coordinated by the federal health department is due to become part of the health services accreditation requirements in Australia sometime this year. The submission claimed that, if the Tasmanian health department did not update the state based sepsis management program before then, Tasmanian hospitals risked losing accreditation.

The submission explained that NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory had implemented such programs and the ACT had adopted some aspects of the NSW program.

It said South Australia and Western Australia were marginally ahead of Tasmania as they had established sepsis pathways at major hospitals, but were yet to implement statewide programs.

The result of the implementation of those processes, according to the submission, was "a reduction in sepsis mortality rates, a decrease in hospital length of stays [and] a decrease in sepsis related re-admissions".

The submission said those processes were at odds with what is in place in Tasmania.

"There is no dedicated, statewide, whole system-wide sepsis program in Tasmania," it said.

"Tasmanians die from sepsis because there are no consistent sepsis protocols in place in our current health system. When it comes to sepsis in Tasmania, full recovery seems to depend on the 'luck of the draw'."

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It also said there was a lack of education about sepsis in the community and among some health professionals.

The submission said the current sepsis protocols in place at the Royal Hobart Hospital, the LGH and the North West Regional Hospital were devised in 2012 and had not been reviewed or renewed since.

Through the submission Sepsis Awareness Tasmania laid down a list of requirements for a potential Tasmanian sepsis management program.

These requirements included establishing of an overarching sepsis body to facilitate the program, creating sepsis prevention and awareness campaigns, implementing national sepsis clinical standards and developing a means of detecting sepsis "in-hospital".

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Tasmanian chief medical officer Dr Tony Lawler said the sepsis systems in Tasmania were continually being worked on.

"The THS has undertaken significant work in recent years to develop and implement clinical pathways and protocols to assist with managing patients with suspected sepsis," he said.

"This includes the development of sepsis clinical pathways, as well as the establishment of antibiotic prescribing protocols."

Dr Lawler said there was a "strong focus" on education for THS staff about the awareness of sepsis.

He said the state continued to "work collaboratively with the other jurisdictions on the development of a national approach to support improved sepsis outcomes and will engage further with Sepsis Australia".

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