Patient Safety Commissioner: Learning for Martha’s Rule in Wales (25 September 2024)

Summary

Eirian Edwards and Chris Subbe explain how they have implemented Martha's Rule in Wales.

Content

In April 2023 Yybyty Gwynedd Hospital officially launched the Call 4Concern service for all adult patients admitted to the hospital in Bangor, as the first site in Wales to offer such a service.

Call 4Concern is the option for patients, relatives, or friends to contact a member of the Critical Care Outreach team. Locally this means that callers ring the hospital switchboard, ask for Call4Concern and get a call back to discuss their concern. The Call 4Concern service is one service model that is in line with the recommendations made by the Patient Safety Commissioner for Martha’s Rule.

Since then the hospital has seen over 70 patients (1-2 per week), admitted one patient to the Intensive Care Unit, treated one patient with diabetic ketoacidosis on the ward, and adjusted treatments in a number of other patients. Most calls were from relatives, many were concerns about communication, and very few calls were made at night.

Patient feedback has shown that patients really appreciate that the critical care outreach team is taking their calls seriously and that they are listening to their concerns.