Martha’s rule having ‘transformative effect’, NHS England data shows

Patients have been moved to intensive care or received potentially life-saving treatment such as oxygen as a direct result of hospitals adopting Martha’s rule, NHS data shows.

Doctors and nurses have changed how they care for dozens of very sick patients since its introduction in many parts of the NHS in England during the course of 2024.

Martha’s rule, named after Martha Mills, who died in 2021 aged 13, gives patients and their loved ones the right to request an urgent review of the person in hospital’s treatment. That triggers their care being looked at urgently by a team of specialists, who offer a second opinion.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, 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.”

The new patient safety procedure has led to 573 calls, across the 143 hospitals using it, in which someone has sought an urgent review. About half (286) have prompted an urgent review by critical care staff. And about one in five of those reviews – 57 cases – has led to the person’s care being escalated, for example by being given potentially life-saving antibiotics or other drugs.

Martha's mother, Merope Mills, told the Today programme: “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.”

She continued: “Any doctors who still have doubts about the value of Martha’s rule, I’d love them to realise a bit of humility and being open to the opinions of the family and patients makes for the best and safest medicine.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 December 2024