Martha’s Rule is coming to every A&E department in England

Who Martha's Rule is named after in 'a critical new lifeline'

Patients, loved ones and staff in A&E units will be able to call a dedicated phone number to trigger an urgent review for patients.

The landline is aimed in aiding patients whose conditions are deteriorating and are concerned that they're not being listened to. 

Staff can also request a review from a different team.

The expansion starts now and should be complete by March 2028, according to BBC News.

The new rule follows an eight-month trial run at seven institutions, during which 69 calls were made to dedicated phone numbers.

In some cases the call led to a patient having immediate surgery or being moved to intensive care.

The rule is already being rolled out across all inpatient wards.

Martha Mills died aged 13 at King's College Hospital in London in 2021 after developing sepsis.

She had been admitted with serious injuries to her pancreas after skidding on sand while cycling on a family holiday and falling onto the handlebars.

Her family's concerns were not listened to, and in 2022 a coroner ruled she would probably have survived had she been transferred earlier to intensive care and given appropriate treatment.

Her parents, Merope and Paul, pushed for the creation of the rule to change in-house culture within trusts.

Prof Aidan Fowler, national director of patient safety at NHS England, said the expansion would give families and staff "a critical new lifeline" to help improve care and save more lives, and that early testing had shown the rule "can work well in busy A&Es".

The rollout is one of a run of changes to how patients in England reach care, alongside the 12 new conditions a pharmacist can treat instead of your GP.

The point of this one is narrower: a number to ring when nobody is listening, and a second chance at rehabilitation.