A rule allowing patients to get second opinions on their treatment will be rolled out across the NHS after the death of a girl, 13, at King’s College Hospital.
Martha Mills died from sepsis in 2021 because her symptoms were missed and staff failed to escalate her to intensive care.
The NHS has now announced that ‘Martha’s Rule’ will be introduced in at least 100 hospitals meaning patients can get urgent reviews if their conditions deteriorate.
Merope Mills and Paul Laity, Martha’s parents, said: “Our daughter was quite something: fun and determined, with a vast appetite for life and so many plans and ambitions – we’ll never know what she would have achieved with all her talents.
“Hers was a preventable death, but ‘Martha’s Rule’ will mean that she didn’t die completely in vain.”
Martha Mills died after sustaining a laceration to her pancreas in a bike accident on a family holiday in Wales.
She later developed sepsis while being treated at King’s College Hospital, in Denmark Hill.
An inquest into her death heard that she would have survived had consultants moved her to intensive care sooner.
The implementation of ‘Martha’s Rule’ in the NHS will take a phased approach, beginning from April.
Participating sites have not been decided yet. At least 100 adult and paediatric acute provider sites already offering a 24/7 critical care outreach capability will be chosen.
Under the new scheme, hospitals will receive government funding for posters and leaflets informing patients and their families that they can directly ask for a “rapid review” of their treatment, NHS England said.
A senior doctor or nurse from elsewhere in the building, who specialises in the care of deteriorating patients, will conduct the review.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors, said welcomed the scheme, but said it would need to be carefully monitored before being fully rolled out.
Dr Vishal Sharma, who chairs BMA consultants committee, said: “For this to result in improvements for patients, it is essential that the current workforce crisis is addressed so that critical care outreach teams have the necessary staff they need to deliver this initiative.”
Ms Mills said she was “pleased”, because patients and families had a “role to play”.
“Sometimes, doctors are incredibly overstretched,” she said. “And they cannot always spot the same changes in a patient that family and patients themselves can.”