East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has been selected as one of the first Trusts in England to implement Martha’s Rule – a new patient safety initiative to be rolled out in acute hospitals in England this year.
The implementation of Martha’s Rule will provide a consistent and understandable plan for all acute hospitals, which gives seriously ill patients and their families easy access to a second opinion if their condition worsens and they feel they are not being listened to.
The scheme, known at the Trust as Call 4 Concern, will comprise three components to ensure concerns about deterioration are responded to without delay.
- An escalation process will enable patients and families to contact Critical Care Outreach team (CCOT) who will assess patients and escalate care when they feel they need to do so.
- Staff will also have access to this same process if they have concerns about a patient’s condition – this is already in place at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
- Clinicians will formally record daily insights and information about a patient’s health directly from their families, ensuring any concerning changes in behaviour or condition noticed by the people who know the patient best are considered by staff. This element will be introduced as part of the roll out of our new electronic patient record system next year.
Theresa Murphy, Chief Nurse at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust said: “I’m delighted that we will be in the vanguard for implementing Martha’s Rule as it is such an important part of the Trust’s commitment to improving safety standards for our patients; our staff are committed to this initiative.
“The rule follows the success of Call 4 Concern that was launched at the Trust in December 2023, which allows patients and families to immediately raise concerns if they feel they are not being listened to.
“Martha’s Rule is such an important milestone in patient safety. Standardising how we in hospitals do things can only help to improve communication, help better identify patients who are deteriorating, share learning and help save lives.
“The Trust would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Martha’s parents Merope and David who have campaigned so movingly to have this patient safety measure implemented at hospitals across the country.”
Evaluation of how the system works in this first phase will inform proposals for Martha’s Rule to be expanded across all acute hospitals in England subject to future government funding.
