Martha’s Rule is ‘reducing harm’ as thousands seek second opinion, MPs told

Thousands of patients or their loved ones have sought a second opinion about their NHS care under the Martha’s Rule initiative, MPs have heard.

Families have described how the lives of loved ones have been saved by the scheme and MPs have been told that it is “improving safety” and “reducing harm”.

More than 100 patients have been taken to intensive care “or equivalent” as a result of Martha’s Rule, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee was told.

The initiative, named after teenager Martha Mills who died in 2021 aged 13, gives patients and their loved ones the right to a second medical opinion.

Patients, their loved ones or staff have raised concerns about care using Martha’s Rule on more than 2,000 occasions, patient safety commissioner Dr Henrietta Hughes told the committee.

The initiative was launched in April last year in the name of Martha, who died from sepsis after suffering a pancreatic injury when she fell off her bike.

Her mother Merope 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.

So far 143 hospitals in England have signed up to the Martha’s Rule pilot scheme.

Ms Mills has called for the initiative to be rolled out across the whole of the NHS.

Patients have reached out to the family to describe how the lives of their loved ones have been saved thanks to Martha’s Rule.

She said: “I’m very pleased with the progress that has been made with the implementation of Martha’s Rule.

“More than 100 people escalated to ICU or equivalent is a really significant number and I’ve heard directly from people who feel a family member’s life has been saved in this way, including an NHS nurse who was struggling to have her voice heard. She believes her husband is alive thanks to making a Martha’s Rule call.

“What we really need now is to see Martha’s Rule extended to all hospitals around the country. Everyone needs to have access to this service, which is changing NHS culture by giving patients more power, costs very little but has a huge impact.”

Dr Hughes told the committee: “What’s been fantastic around this is that the engagement not only of family members being able to escalate concerns, and we’ve had over 2,000 calls, which have led to more than 300 patients having an improvement in their care, and over 100 ending up being escalated to ITU or equivalent.

“I think it really shows that the patients and families have really valuable information that we can listen to, and if we act on that, then we improve safety and we reduce harm to patients, but also we improve things like staff morale, reduce numbers of complaints, etc.”

She added: “So Martha’s Rule is an initiative which was started after the tragic death of Martha Mills, and it’s about giving patients and families the opportunity to get a rapid review if they’re concerned about deterioration of the patient.

“It’s been piloted in 143 hospital sites, and it’s about giving the staff the ability to act on their clinical judgment, but also for patients and families if they’re concerned that they’re not being listened to, to be able to get a review from a critical care outreach team.”