{"id":18452,"date":"2024-12-17T01:45:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T02:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18452"},"modified":"2024-12-17T03:27:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T03:27:21","slug":"mother-behind-marthas-rule-shares-schemes-early-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18452","title":{"rendered":"Mother behind Martha’s Rule shares scheme’s early success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"MeropeMerope Mills<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Almost one out of every eight phone calls made under the Martha’s Rule scheme has led to a potentially life-saving change of treatment, NHS England has revealed.<\/b><\/p>\n

The scheme allows rapidly deteriorating patients and their families who feel their concerns are being ignored to dial a phone number at the hospital and request an urgent review from a critical-care outreach team.<\/p>\n

Merope Mills began campaigning for the scheme after an inquest found<\/a> a change of care plan could have prevented her 13-year-old daughter Martha’s death from sepsis in 2021.<\/p>\n

And on Tuesday, she told BBC R4’s Today programme she was “excited” by the early data on its rollout in 143 NHS hospitals across England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Of the 573 calls in September and October, 286 (50%) led to a critical-care review, resulting in a change of treatment, such as antibiotics, oxygen or other medication, in 57 cases and a further 14 patients being transferred into intensive care.<\/p>\n

Admitted to King’s College Hospital, in south London, after injuring her pancreas in a cycling accident, Martha died after developing an infection that led to sepsis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Clear evidence’<\/h2>\n
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“Losing a loved one in a preventable way compounds your grief and your devastation,” her mother told Today.<\/p>\n

“But if nobody learns from it, nothing changes.” <\/p>\n

Campaigning for Martha’s Rule had been “exhausting” but seeing people willing to learn from mistakes had helped her and her husband.<\/p>\n

“There were definitely sceptics” at the scheme’s launch, in April, Ms Mills said.<\/p>\n

She told Today: “There were people who said if you give patients this kind of power, they’ll call it for the wrong reasons – they will be complaining about food, they’ll be wanting a cup of tea.<\/p>\n

“And we have the first clear evidence that this is not the case.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s clear to me that if we implement Martha’s Rule nationally, we can confidently say that it would greatly improve care, change the culture and save lives.” <\/p>\n

Ms Mills highlighted an Institute of <\/a>Global Health Innovation report<\/a> of more than 15,000 preventable deaths in the UK last year, saying Martha’s Rule “could play a part in getting that number down”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And she is calling for the scheme to be extended to all NHS hospitals, with posters and leaflets displaying the same branding.<\/p>\n

“I’d really like it to be simple around the country and for patients to understand it in the way that they understand 999, and 111,” Ms Mills added.<\/p>\n

NHS England says 2025 and 2026 will see further developments to extend the scheme and adapt it where necessary.<\/p>\n

A similar scheme is being piloted by the NHS in Wales and considered in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

And in Scotland, 2019 legislation already gives NHS patients the right to request a second opinion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merope MillsAlmost one out of every eight phone calls made under the Martha’s Rule scheme has led to a potentially life-saving change of treatment, NHS England has revealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18456,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18452\/revisions\/18456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}