Luton and Dunstable University Hospital has begun rolling out Martha’s Rule – a new patient safety measure designed to ensure concerns about seriously ill patients are acted upon swiftly.
The initiative, named after 13-year-old Martha Mills who died from sepsis in 2021, is being introduced by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of 16 Trusts in the East of England selected to pilot the scheme.
Martha died after doctors failed to act on her parents’ concerns that she was deteriorating following a cycling accident. A coroner later ruled she would probably have survived if she had been moved to intensive care sooner.
Since December, Martha’s Rule has been in place across all adult inpatient wards at the hospital and has now launched in Children’s Services.
The initiative gives patients, their families, carers and staff a formal route to escalate concerns about worsening health and focuses on ensuring healthcare teams ask, listen, record and act when concerns are raised about a patient’s condition.
While the first phase does not include emergency departments, maternity or neonatal services, discussions are under way about extending the initiative to those areas in future.
Further details are available at: www.bedfordshirehospitals.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/marthas-rule
