Martha’s Rule: Detecting deterioration (NHS England, 31 March 2025)

Summary

Martha’s Rule is a key patient safety initiative to ensure patients, families, carers and hospital staff’s concerns about a worsening health condition are listened to. This can help detect deterioration early, so action can be taken to prevent more serious health problems.

Effective communication is crucial to the success of Martha’s Rule. NHS England has launched a Martha’s Rule communications toolkit providing trusts with a range of resources to support them to:

• raise awareness of Martha’s Rule among hospital staff, patients, families, and carers
• support staff to understand their role in implementing Martha’s Rule, ensuring they feel confident to escalate concerns and ask
• for additional support when necessary
• empower patients and families to voice concerns about deteriorating health and to seek rapid reviews when needed.