A&E departments across England are now required to respond when patients’ families raise urgent concerns about a person’s deteriorating condition, under a programme known as “Martha’s Rule.” The policy is named after 13-year-old Martha Mills, who died in 2021 at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in south London.
The rule takes effect after the Mills family said they were not listened to before her death. BBC Health reports the change is rolled out to every A&E department in England, extending the system beyond earlier pilot and early adoption sites. The London Evening Standard similarly links the expansion to the death of Martha Mills and the campaign that followed, describing the programme’s broader reach to emergency care settings.
