Martha's Rule helplines gets more than 1,700 calls from worried NHS staff

Martha's Rule helplines gets more than 1,700 calls from worried NHS staffJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePA MediaMartha Mills was 13 when she died following failings in her careMore than 1,700 calls have been made by NHS staff in England to Martha's Rule helplines to flag concerns about patient care, new figures show. The helplines were set up after a campaign by the parents of 13-year-old Martha Mills who died after serious failings in her care.Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Merope Mills, Martha's mother, said there was "one particular nurse" who might have made use of the helpline had it been available to her.The NHS is expanding the availability of the helplines across England.Martha Mills, died at King's College Hospital in London in 2021 after developing sepsis. Her family's concerns were not listened to.In 2022, a coroner ruled Martha would probably have survived if she had been transferred earlier to intensive care and given appropriate treatmentSpeak upMartha's Rule encourages families, carers and patients to speak up if they notice changes in a patient's condition and to seek an urgent review from a critical care team if their health is deteriorating and concerns are not being listened to.Under the scheme, clinicians also record daily insights about a patient's health directly from families.Staff, including those in junior roles, can also ask for a review from a team independent of the one they work with.The helplines have been available in 143 hospital sites in England since September 2024 and of the nearly 1,800 calls made by staff between then and February this year, over 1000 have helped identify serious deterioration of a patient's condition, says NHS England.Mills stressed the importance of the calls coming from staff as they made use of the "non-confrontational" way to raise concerns.She said the "extremely hierarchical" nature of medicine made it h...