Every A&E in England gets Martha’s Rule helpline
The phased rollout is due to be completed by March 2028, NHS England said.
Every accident and emergency department in England is getting a Martha’s Rule helpline, giving patients, families and staff the right to request an urgent review of a deteriorating patient’s care, NHS England has said.
The expansion, which covers A&E waiting rooms as well as the departments themselves, follows an eight-month pilot in seven hospital trusts.
During that trial, 69 calls were made to dedicated Martha’s Rule phone numbers, NHS England said. In some cases that led to a patient having urgent surgery or being transferred to intensive care.
Martha’s Rule is named after Martha Mills, who died aged 13 in 2021 after developing sepsis following a cycling accident on a family holiday.
A coroner ruled in 2022 that Martha would probably have survived with an earlier transfer to intensive care and appropriate treatment. Martha had been treated at King’s College Hospital in London, where the family’s concerns were not listened to.
The scheme is already being rolled out across inpatient wards in England. It was extended to every maternity and neonatal unit in June 2026, giving women and parents the right to a second opinion about the care of a mother or baby.
More than 10,000 calls were made to Martha’s Rule helplines in the first 16 months after the scheme launched in England in 2024, potentially saving 446 lives, figures show. The scheme recorded its highest-ever monthly total of 1,678 calls in July 2026.
Prof Aidan Fowler, national director of patient safety at NHS England, said A&E departments see “some of our most vulnerable patients”, making it essential that concerns about deterioration can trigger “a rapid review of care”.
“Martha’s Rule is already having a transformative effect in making our acute care even safer, and by expanding Martha’s Rule into A&Es, we are giving even more patients, their families and NHS staff a critical new lifeline to help improve care and save more lives,” Fowler said.
Health minister Baroness Merron said the expansion would give patients, families and staff “another way to speak up when they are worried that someone’s condition is getting worse, ensuring concerns are acted on quickly”.
“This is part of our wider efforts to put patient safety at the heart of the NHS,” Merron added.
Patients and their families can find out where Martha’s Rule is available by visiting their local NHS trust’s website or asking hospital staff.
Matthew Hopkins, acute and ambulance director at the NHS Alliance, said NHS leaders welcomed the rollout.
The change would “enhance the safety of care” and “provide reassurance for patients and their families if there are concerns that the patient’s condition is getting worse”, Hopkins added.