Martha's Rule revisited ...

Last year in May, I posted about Martha's Rule. A year on, there is an update:

Evidence suggests Martha’s Rule is saving lives

'To support learning and assess the impact the programme is having, we regularly collect data from sites where Martha’s Rule is in place.

Early evidence suggests Martha’s Rule is saving lives and helping thousands of patients benefit from changes to their care.

Data from September 2024 to February 2026 shows 12,301 Martha’s Rule calls were made, with the highest proportion of calls (72%) made via the family/carer escalation process. 4,047 Martha’s Rule escalation calls (33%) related to acute deterioration.

Of those, 2,310 calls required changes in treatment. This includes 524 calls which resulted in transfers of care to high dependency or intensive care units, enhanced levels of care, tertiary centres or referral/transfer to specialists or a specialist ward. Other changes in treatment (1,786) did not require transfer of a patient from a ward in-patient setting. This includes the introduction of a new medication such as an antibiotic to treat infection, investigations including scans and procedural interventions including going to theatre.'

Source:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/marthas-rule/#implementingmarthasrule

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

"Not herself ..."   Listening  Martha	1,700 NHS staff Taking action escalation
Mills parents, guardians, friends & family   Familly input - Multidisciplinary Team   Teamwork	Martha's Rule

My prompt:
Koronka, P. '1,700 NHS staff use Martha's Rule to raise the alarm'. The Times, 1 May, 2026, p.6.

Previously: 'intuition' : 'observation' : 'listen' : 'communication' (Never as an afterthought.)