Nearly one in eight phone calls made under the new Martha’s Rule scheme has led to a potentially life-saving treatment, new NHS data has revealed.
Martha Mills died aged 13 in 2021 after sustaining a laceration to her pancreas from a bike accident on a family holiday in Wales. She later developed sepsis while being treated at King's College Hospital, in Camberwell.
An inquest into her death heard that she would have survived had consultants decided to move her to intensive care sooner.
The scheme, rolled out earlier this year, gives patients and their loved ones the right to a second medical opinion from a different team of specialists.
NHS England data made public on Tuesday by Martha’s mother, Merope, shows that 14 people were transferred to intensive care units after patients, their family or NHS staff called for a second opinion.
The patient safety procedure has been trialled in 143 hospitals across the country, and is available 24 hours a day.
One in five of the 573 calls made as part of the scheme led to a change in a patient’s care in September and October, the data showed. This could include giving patients life-saving antibiotics, oxygen or other treatments.
Family members accounted for around three-quarters (76 per cent) of calls, while 15 per cent were made by patients themselves.
Nearly one in ten (9 per cent) were made by NHS staff.
Ms Mills told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that campaigning for the new system had been “exhausting”.
“Losing a loved one in a preventable way compounds your grief and your devastation,” she said.
“But if nobody learns from it, nothing changes, it makes you feel as if their life meant nothing to the people who let them down.
“So pushing through this change has been exhausting at times but in some level it has helped us both to see that people are prepared to learn from Martha’s death and those mistakes.”
Merope previously told how doctors had not taken her family’s concerns seriously and that she was “not given the full picture” about her daughter’s deteriorating condition.
It was announced in February that Martha’s Rule was expected to be rolled out by at least 100 NHS trusts in England from April.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Martha’s Rule is helping to “build a safer NHS” while NHS England said its introduction had been “one of the important changes to patient care in recent years”.
“I thank Merope Mills and Paul Laity for their tireless campaign for Martha’s Rule. It is just a shame that it took such a heartbreaking tragedy, and the bravery of Martha’s parents to speak out, for this change to be made,” he said.
“The rollout of Martha’s Rule is already playing a role in building a safer NHS by putting patients and their families at the heart of discussions about their healthcare, and early indications are that it could have a transformative impact.”
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “The introduction of Martha’s rule represents one of the most important changes to patient care in recent years, and we are really encouraged to see the impact it is already having for patients in this first phase.”
