Mother behind Martha’s Rule shares scheme’s early success
Merope MillsNHS England has revealed that almost one in eight calls made under the Martha’s Rules scheme resulted in potentially life-saving treatment changes.
The program allows rapidly deteriorating patients and their families who feel their concerns are being ignored to call a hospital phone number to request an urgent review from the critical care outreach team.
Merope Mills launches campaign for plan findings A change in the care plan could have prevented the death of her 13-year-old daughter Martha from sepsis in 2021.
On Tuesday, she told BBC R4’s Today program that she was “excited” by the early data from the rollout of the product across 143 NHS hospitals in England.
Of the 573 calls received in September and October, 286 (50%) resulted in critical care reviews, resulting in 57 patients having their treatment changed, such as antibiotics, oxygen or other medications, and 14 patients being discharged. Transferred to intensive care unit.
Martha suffered an injury to her pancreas in a cycling accident and was admitted to King’s College Hospital in south London, where she died from an infection leading to sepsis.
“clear evidence”
Her mother told TODAY: “Losing a loved one in a preventable way intensifies your grief and devastation.”
“But if no one learns from it, nothing will change.”
The Martha Rules campaign was “exhausting,” but seeing people willing to learn from their mistakes helped her and her husband.
Ms Mills said there were “definitely some skeptics” when the scheme launched in April.
She told Today: “Some people say that if you give patients this power, they will invoke it for the wrong reasons – they will complain about the food, they will want a cup of tea.
“We have the first clear evidence that this is not the case.”
“It’s clear to me that if we implement Martha’s Rules across the country, we can confidently say it will dramatically improve care, change culture and save lives.”
Ms. Mills emphasized graduate School Global Health Innovation Report There were more than 15,000 preventable deaths in the UK last year, and M&S rules “could play a role in bringing this number down”.
She called for the scheme to be extended to all NHS hospitals, with the same branding displayed on posters and leaflets.
Ms Mills added: “I really want phone calls to be made simpler across the country so that patients can understand it in the same way they understand 999 and 111.”
NHS England said it would further develop the scheme in 2025 and 2026 and make adjustments where necessary.
The NHS is trialling a similar scheme in Wales and is considering implementing it in Northern Ireland.
In Scotland, legislation in 2019 has given NHS patients the right to request a second opinion.
