More than 500 people have received potentially life-saving care thanks to Martha’s rule, which gives hospital patients the right to seek a second opinion about their health. They were moved to intensive care or a specialist unit after they, a loved one or a member of NHS staff triggered the patient safety mechanism, which the NHS in England began using in 2024.
Martha’s rule lets patients, relatives and staff call a helpline run by the hospital if they are worried about the person’s condition or treatment and ask for a “rapid review” of their care. In the 18 months between September 2024 and February 2026, a total of 524 adults and children about whom concerns had been raised were moved to an intensive care or high-dependency unit, a specialist hospital or a specialist ward at the hospital where they were already an inpatient.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the figures proved that Martha’s rule is “already having a life-saving impact”. It has been widely hailed as a major advance in patient safety. Martha’s rule is named after Martha Mills, who died aged 13 in 2021 after her family’s concerns that she was deteriorating went unheeded by staff at King’s College hospital in London.
Her parents, Merope Mills and Paul Laity, campaigned to persuade ministers, NHS leaders and doctors to implement the right to a review of a hospital patient by a different team from the one treating them, which can lead to their care being escalated. After an inquest into her death a year later, the coroner ruled that Martha would probably have survived sepsis if doctors had transferred her to intensive care earlier.
NHS England’s latest data on how Martha’s rule is operating shows that 12,301 calls were made to Martha’s rule helplines during those 18 months. About one in three – 4,047 – helped to identify a patient whose health was getting worse. Three-quarters of them (2,967) were made either by a patient and their carer or by the patient themselves. Hospital staff made the other 1,080.
An interim review into the operation of Martha’s rule published on Friday found that 32% of the public were aware of the initiative, which hospitals promote using posters and other means. However, those who have been through higher education were four times more likely to have heard of it than others. Paul Whiteing, chief executive of the patient safety charity, Action against Medical Accidents, said: “Too often the people we support still tell us about the culture of defend and deny that they face when they ask questions or raise concerns about their treatment. If this rule is challenging that culture, then its use must be expanded as soon as is possible.”
