The NHS will roll out “Martha’s Rule” from April, giving patients and families access to a second medical opinion if they are worried about a condition getting worse.
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 made a decision to move her to intensive care sooner.
Martha’s parents, Merope Mills, an editor at the Guardian, and her husband Paul Laity, raised concerns about Martha’s health a number of times but these were brushed aside.
The pair have since campaigned for Martha’s Rule to be introduced to give families more say over the care of their loved ones.
On Wednesday, the NHS confirmed that families would be given 24/7 access to a critical care team for a second opinion throughout its hospitals.
If a patient’s condition is deteriorating, their loved ones can request an urgent clinical review by a different team in the hospital.
At least 100 NHS trusts are expected to bring in the rule, with the programme evaluated throughout this year and next.
Martha’s parents said in a statement: ““We are pleased that the implementation of Martha’s Rule will begin in April.
“We want it to be in place as quickly and as widely as possible, to prevent what happened to our daughter from happening to other patients in hospital.
“We believe Martha’s Rule will save lives. In cases of deterioration, families and carers by the bedside can be aware of changes busy clinicians can’t; their knowledge should be recognised as a resource.
“We also look to Martha’s Rule to alter medical culture: to give patients a little more power, to encourage listening on the part of medical professionals, and to normalise the idea that even the grandest of doctors should welcome being challenged.”
They called on NHS doctors to back the initiative, adding: “We know that the large majority do listen, are open with patients and never complacent – but Martha’s doctors worked in a different culture, so some situations need to change.
“Our daughter was quite something: fun and determined, with a vast appetite for life and so many plans and ambitions – we’ll never know what she would have achieved with all her talents.”
In a Prevention of Future Deaths report issued after Martha’s inquest, senior coroner for Inner North London Mary Hassell criticised doctors at King’s for not moving her to intensive care promptly after her condition worsened.
“If she had been referred promptly and had been appropriately treated, the likelihood is that she would have survived her injuries,” she said.
One of the trust’s own intensive care doctors told the inquest into Martha’s death he would “100 per cent” have admitted her if he had seen her.
Regarding the introduction of Martha’s Rule, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said it had the potential to “save many lives in the future”.
Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s acute network, welcomed the move.
He said: “Questions remain about what resources hospitals and other providers will be given to deliver the new scheme.
“Introducing a 24/7 clinical review process will have implementation costs and leaders will be concerned if they are just being expected to provide the additional service without any extra resources.
“But this rollout is part of an important shift where the NHS is looking to change the relationship between the NHS, clinicians, patients and their families.”
