Stoke Mandeville Hospital chosen to be in the first phase of sites to implement Martha’s Rule
Stoke Mandeville Hospital has been officially selected by NHS England as one of hospital sites to test and rollout Martha’s rule. The first phase of the programme will be in place at 143 locations across the country by March 2025.
The programme will be managed by the Trust Critical Care Outreach service and implemented for adults only.
The Trust Critical Care Outreach service is recognised as a leader in critical care delivery, especially in the swift identification of deteriorating patients. At a recent National Outreach Forum Conference members of the team led discussions and shared knowledge about the importance of the early identification of sepsis and embedding wellbeing practices within critical care.
Over this first phase of the programme members of the Critical Care Outreach service will support Trust inpatient teams at Stoke Mandeville Hospital to deliver Martha’s Rule effectively.
The three components of Martha’s Rule are:
- All staff in NHS trusts must have 24/7 access to a rapid review from a critical care outreach team, who they can contact should they have concerns about a patient.
- All patients, their families, carers, and advocates must also have access to the same 24/7 rapid review from a critical care outreach team, which they can contact via mechanisms advertised around the hospital, and more widely if they are worried about the patient’s condition. This is Martha’s Rule.
- The NHS must implement a structured approach to obtain information relating to a patient’s condition directly from patients and their families at least daily. In the first instance, this will cover all inpatients in acute and specialist trusts.
Julia Phillips, Nurse Consultant Critical Care and Outreach for the Trust, said: “The team is very proud to have been chosen to help implement such an important and landmark policy. The programme implementation provides a great opportunity to showcase our ongoing work at the Trust and to help to shape the future of critical care outreach team services nationally.”
Andrew McLaren, Chief Medical Officer for the Trust said: “To have been selected to help develop national policy in this way demonstrates the high regard in which the team is held. I would note that the Critical Care Outreach team at Stoke Mandeville Hospital developed a Call for Concern pilot in 2022 – It is testament to their track record of championing excellence in recognising when patients require urgent intervention and of their sensitive and important involvement of a patient’s loved ones to positively influence critical care outcomes.”
Read more about Martha’s Rule and the NHS England implementation programme.