More than 80 people per day are turning up at Broomfield Hospital concerned they have sepsis after the condition is shown in two BBC dramas.

Sepsis was shown on Call the Midwife and The Archers.

It has prompted hundreds of worried people to visit A&E thinking they had the condition, which can prove fatal if not treated promptly.

Carole Bishop, a clinical nurse specialist at Broomfield Hospital, told The Mail that it was important that if people thought they had the condition they sought the necessary hospital care.

She added: "Anything that is raising awareness is seen as a good thing because about 60 per cent of the population don't know what sepsis is. The trouble is, they always show the extreme side of sepsis.

"We have seen some really good stories with patients, and their outcomes have been absolutely fantastic because they have been seen, they have been treated early and they have gone home.

"It does cause issues with patients in the ambulance bay and obviously trying to move them to the area they need to be.

"We get quite a few false alarms but we also get patients that have left it because they don't want to be a nuisance.

"They hear on the news how busy we are and they don't want to be a bother but it is those patients who need to come in."

Symptoms of sepsis include patches of discolored skin, decreased urination, changes in mental ability, low platelet (blood clotting cells) count, problems breathing, abnormal heart functions, chills due to fall in body temperature, unconsciousness and extreme weakness.

It can be controlled and treated with antibiotics.

It kills 44,000 a year in the UK, with around a third preventable.