Why the NHS needs Martha’s Rule – podcast
When Martha Mills fell off her bike during a family holiday in Wales in 2021, she damaged her pancreas and required hospital treatment. It was serious and beyond the local hospital’s expertise, so the 13-year-old was transferred to King’s College Hospital in London.
The doctors at King’s, one of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals, were reassuring. Although the injury was serious, it was treatable and Martha could expect to make a full recovery and return to school within weeks.
But like her mother, Merope mills, tells Nosheen IqbalBy the end of the summer, Martha was dead, after a series of shocking mistakes were made in her treatment. The doctors treating Martha told Merope that she had “just a normal infection” and did not escalate her care to the intensive care unit, despite her parents’ increasing and vocal concerns. She died just after a holiday weekend after going into septic shock. The inquest into her death found she would likely have survived if consultants had decided to move her to intensive care sooner.
Today, following a campaign by Merope and her husband, Paul Laity, the NHS announces it will implement ‘Martha’s rule’ in more than 100 hospitals in England from April. It gives patients and their families access to an urgent assessment by senior clinicians in the same hospital if a patient’s condition is rapidly deteriorating and they feel their concerns are not being listened to.
Photo: Mills/Lay Family Photo/PA