Thousands of patients or their loved ones have sought a second opinion about their NHS care as result of hospitals adopting Martha’s rule, MPs have heard.
This includes more than 100 patients taken to intensive care “or equivalent” since the patient safety procedure was introduced in many parts of the NHS in England last April, the Commons health and social care committee heard on Wednesday.
The patient safety commissioner for England, Dr Henrietta Hughes, told MPs that Martha’s rule was “improving safety” and “reducing harm”.
Families have described how the lives of loved ones have been saved by the scheme, named after Martha Mills, who died in 2021 aged 13. It gives patients and their loved ones the right to request an urgent review of the person receiving hospital treatment, which triggers their care being looked at by a team of specialists, who offer a second opinion.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said the initiative “is already one of the most significant changes in patient safety in recent years, with hundreds of calls leading to improvements in patient care – and undoubtedly lives saved”.
Martha died of sepsis after doctors at King’s College hospital in London did not move her to its intensive care unit, despite her parents voicing serious concern about her care.
Martha’s mother, Merope, a senior editor at the Guardian, said patients have contacted her family to describe how the lives of their loved ones have been saved thanks to the 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 [intensive care unit] 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.”
So far, 143 hospitals in England have signed up to the Martha’s rule pilot scheme.
Hughes told the select committee: “We’ve had over 2,000 calls [under the scheme], which have led to more than 300 patients having an improvement in their care and over 100 ending up being escalated to ITU [intensive therapy unit] 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.”
Powis said: “Patients or their loved ones are often best placed to spot signs of deterioration, and I know everyone across the NHS is grateful to Martha’s parents, Merope and Paul, for their tireless campaigning and ongoing work with us on the rollout.”
Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, applauded the early success of Martha’s rule.
She said: “[This] clearly demonstrates the power of giving people a clear, accessible route to be heard when they’ve noticed the signs of deterioration.
“We’re continuing to call for Martha’s rule to be rolled out across the entire NHS to ensure that every patient, in every hospital, has access to this potentially life-saving measure.”
