Health Secretary Wes Streeting says Martha’s Rule is helping to 'build a safer NHS'
Martha’s Rule, which gives patients and their loved ones the right to a second medical opinion, can “save lives”, Martha Mills’s mother has said.
The new second medical opinion scheme has also been welcomed by Labour and Conservative MPs.
The first two months of the initiative saw 14 people transferred to intensive care units after patients, their family or NHS staff called for a second opinion.
Other patients have also been moved to high-dependency units, coronary care units and received other care, such as returning to operating theatres.
Merope Mills lost her daughter Martha, 13, to sepsis in 2021 after she was admitted to King's College Hospital, in south London, after injuring her pancreas in a cycling accident.
Martha's Rule serves as an escalation process and offers patients and families the power to seek a second opinion if they believe a patient’s condition is deteriorating and they are not being listened to.
One in eight of the 573 calls made to raise concerns about a patient’s condition deteriorating in September and October led to a change in the patient’s care, according to NHS England. This could include giving the patients potentially life-saving antibiotics, oxygen or other treatments.
Around half of the 573 calls required a “clinical review for acute deterioration”, according to NHS England figures.
Family members made the most calls – accounting for 76% – with 15% made by patients themselves, and 9% of those calls were made by NHS staff.
Ms Mills and her husband Paul Laity sounded the alarm about their daughter’s health a number of times, but their concerns were brushed aside.
A coroner ruled she would most likely have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs of her rapidly deteriorating condition and transferred her to intensive care earlier.
Ms Mills said “Losing a loved one in a preventable way compounds your grief and your devastation. If nobody learns from it, nothing changes, it makes you feel as if their life meant nothing to the people who let them down.
“So pushing through this change has been exhausting at times but in some level it has helped us both to see that people are prepared to learn from Martha’s death and those mistakes.
“It’s clear to me that if we implement Martha’s Rule nationally, we can confidently say that it would greatly improve care, change the culture and save lives.”
“I’d really like it to be simple around the country and for patients to understand it in the way that they understand 999 and 111.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Martha’s Rule is helping to “build a safer NHS” while NHS England said its introduction had been “one of the important changes to patient care in recent years”.
“The rollout of Martha’s Rule is already playing a role in building a safer NHS by putting patients and their families at the heart of discussions about their healthcare, and early indications are that it could have a transformative impact.”
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that Mr Streeting should mandate Martha’s Rule across NHS hospitals in England.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, said: “The introduction of Martha’s Rule represents one of the most important changes to patient care in recent years, and we are really encouraged to see the impact it is already having for patients in this first phase.
“This early data highlights just how essential the Martha’s Rule escalation process will be for patients, families and staff."
The pilot scheme of Martha’s Rule will end in 2025. An evaluation of the pilot will inform proposals for it to be rolled out to the final 65 hospitals in England not currently participating.
The evaluation could also propose that the scheme is expanded beyond hospitals to other healthcare settings.
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