Martha's Rule rolled out at every A&E department in England

Prof Aidan Fowler, nationalist manager of diligent information at NHS England, said the expansion of Martha's Rule would give families and NHS staff "a captious caller lifeline" to help improve care and prevent more deaths. Staff can themselves request a review from a different team if they fear the appropriate action is not being taken. During the eight‑month pilot at the seven trusts, 69 calls were placed to the dedicated Martha's Rule phone lines, including some relating to acute deterioration after an urgent review. In several instances, this led to a patient being moved to a higher‑dependency area or transferred to intensive care. Prof Fowler said: "Early investigating has shown that Martha's Rule tin enactment good successful engaged A&Es and builds connected the grounds from our big and children's wards, wherever thousands of calls person been made by patients, families and unit to date, with galore starring to changes successful attraction and perchance life-saving interventions." Health minister Baroness Merron said the initiative was part of "wider efforts to enactment diligent information astatine the bosom of the NHS." Patients and their families can check with their local hospital or NHS trust where Martha's Rule is available by visiting the trust’s website or asking hospital staff. Scotland is preparing to adopt Martha's Rule and Northern Ireland is considering its use, while Wales already operates a comparable scheme called Call4Concern.