Martha’s Rule is now officially being rolled out across all acute hospitals in England, marking a significant step forward for patient safety. This rule provides a clear way for families and carers to get an urgent second opinion if they are worried about the condition of a loved one in hospital. The move follows a successful pilot program that has already been credited with saving hundreds of lives.

The initiative is the result of a powerful campaign by Merope Mills and Paul Laity, the parents of Martha Mills, who died at age 13 after developing sepsis. A coroner later ruled that Martha would likely have survived if her family's concerns had been listened to and she had been moved to intensive care sooner. The rollout across England is a testament to her family's determination to ensure no other family endures a similar tragedy.

Empowering families and improving care

Martha's Rule is built on a simple yet profound principle: patients and their families have unique insights into their own health and should be heard. The program formalizes this by giving patients, families, and carers the right to request an urgent review from a critical care team if they feel their concerns are not being addressed.

Data from the initial pilot across 143 hospital sites shows a clear nI’ve eed for this system. Since April 2024, nearly 5,000 calls were made to Martha's Rule helplines, with the vast majority (over 70%) coming from families. [BBC] These calls led to hundreds of life-saving interventions, changes in treatment plans, and resolutions to communication breakdowns.

Speaking to the BBC, Martha's mother, Merope Mills, said the data proves the need for "a different, more equal kind of doctor-patient relationship." Health Secretary Wes Streeting echoed this, acknowledging that the NHS must learn to listen better to patients, particularly women, to avoid harm and fatalities.

How technology can support Martha's Rule

For hospital trusts, implementing Martha's Rule effectively requires a robust system to manage, track, and learn from these urgent requests. Manual processes using spreadsheets can be time-consuming and inefficient, making it difficult to gain real-time insights or ensure consistency. This is where technology plays a vital role.

Our Calls 4 Concern (C4C) app is designed specifically to help healthcare organizations manage this process. It provides a reliable and streamlined way for teams to collect and manage data from these calls. With features like customizable data capture forms, mobile access, and compliance-ready reporting, the app helps ensure that every concern is logged, addressed, and analyzed. This frees up clinical teams to focus on what matters most: patient care.

Learn more about how the Calls 4 Concern app supports Martha’s Rule implementation.

A real-world example of success

James Paget University Hospitals (JPUH) NHS Foundation Trust is one organization that has already seen the benefits of digitizing its patient concern processes. Before implementing a digital solution, the Trust relied on manual, spreadsheet-based systems to track data from their Critical Care Outreach Team (CCOT) and Calls 4 Concern. This approach was prone to errors and made it difficult to get a clear, timely overview of their workload or patient issues.

By working with us to implement a digital solution, JPUH transformed its processes. The team can now log interactions on the go from mobile devices, and families can even submit concerns directly by scanning a QR code. This removes barriers and empowers people to share vital information. Paul Morris, former Chief Nurse at the Trust, noted how the system was designed by clinical teams for clinical teams, making it intuitive and easy to use.

The integrated system gives the Trust a holistic view of the patient journey by connecting Calls for Concern with incidents, complaints, and other safety data. This comprehensive oversight allows for more informed decision-making and has significantly improved patient safety and operational efficiency.

Read the full James Paget University Hospitals case study to see how they modernized patient care.

Gaining insights to drive continuous improvement

Understanding how to effectively manage and learn from this data is key to driving quality improvement. Triangulating data from Calls for Concern with other sources like incidents, risk, and audits can reveal trends and highlight areas for improvement, ultimately boosting patient safety.

To help healthcare leaders navigate this, we hosted a webinar with the team from James Paget University Hospitals. In this session, they shared their real-world experience of streamlining their CCOT and Calls 4 Concern data. The webinar explores how to make data collection more efficient, reduce the administrative burden on staff, and use technology to turn data into actionable insights that have a tangible impact on patient care.

Watch the on-demand webinar to learn how to streamline your Calls 4 Concern data.

The future of patient-led care

The rollout of Martha's Rule across England is a monumental achievement for patient advocacy. While the initial focus is on acute hospitals, discussions are already underway about expanding it to other settings, including mental health trusts and community care. Furthermore, Wales is introducing a similar scheme, and Scotland is currently testing its own pilots.

This movement represents a fundamental shift toward a more collaborative and transparent relationship between healthcare providers and the people they serve. As Merope Mills stated, we are all just "one disaster away" from needing the healthcare system, and initiatives like Martha's Rule ensure that when that day comes, every voice is heard.

For more details on the national rollout and its impact, you can read the full BBC article here.

For more information on how Ideagen Healthcare Guardian can support your organization in implementing Martha’s Rule, speak to an expert today.