Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Sepsis will be used as a focus to examine the demise of accountability in public services. Accountability is a contested concept and sepsis demonstrates what happens when accountability is eroded. Accountability is a slippery and contested concept in social policy, consequently, theoretical insights from Foucault and Habermas will help inform the debate. On 15 January 2013 my good friend and former colleague, Peter Henriques, died of Sepsis. Peter was a fit, healthy fifty-two-year-old man who was at the peak of his academic and professional career. Up until that sad day I had barely heard of sepsis and knew very little about it. However, when I began to research the condition I was shocked to discover that sepsis is responsible for more than 250,000 deaths every year in the United States and 44,000 deaths each year in Britain. Approximately 50% of deaths are due to late diagnosis and inadequate treatment by medical practitioners, thus preventable. During the past ten years the problem has been brought to the attention of doctors, policy makers, and managers (www.rorystauntonfoundation.com), so why has so little seemingly been done at a national level? The logical question that must be asked is who is responsible for not responding to this hidden sepsis challenge? The sepsis debate is intended to demonstrate what is at stake when accountability is eroded and what might be done about it.