Martha’s Rule is now available in every acute hospital in England.
Martha’s Rule is a major patient safety initiative in hospitals encouraging patients, families and carers to speak to the care team if they notice changes in someone’s condition.
It also provides them with a way to seek an urgent review if their or their loved one’s condition deteriorates – and are concerned this is not being responded to.
Staff can themselves ask for a review from a different team if they are concerned the appropriate action is not being taken.
The rollout follows a pilot across England, which saw 4,906 calls made to Martha’s Rule helplines between September 2024 and June this year, leading to 241 potentially life-saving interventions being triggered.
Martha Mills died in 2021 aged 13 after developing sepsis in hospital, where she had been admitted with a pancreatic injury after falling off her bike.
Martha’s family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to, and in 2023 a coroner ruled that Martha would probably have survived had she been moved to intensive care earlier.
Merope Mills and Paul Laity, Martha’s parents, said: “It would be Martha’s 18th birthday today, another milestone she has missed as a result of the poor care and hospital errors that led to her unnecessary death.
“We feel her absence every day, but at least Martha’s Rule is already preventing many families from experiencing something similar.
“The figures prove that lives are saved when patients and families are given power to act on their suspicions when they feel doctors might have got it wrong and their voice isn’t being heard.
“We are pleased to know more hospitals are taking up Martha’s Rule and look forward to a time when every patient in the UK knows about the initiative and has easy access to it.”
