![\"Merope](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/0236\/live\/4ddecfc0-1bf5-11ef-9c20-531013a79b80.png.webp\")
Merope Mills<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nAn initiative allowing rapidly deteriorating patients and their families to seek a second opinion will play a role in “changing the culture of the NHS”, Merope Mills has said.<\/b><\/p>\n
Ms Mills began her campaign for “Martha’s rule” after her daughter Martha, 13, died of sepsis in 2021.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BBC R4’s Today programme, Ms Mills said it was “encouraging” to see 143 NHS hospitals sign up to the scheme.<\/p>\n
The rule change will challenge a “culture of deference” towards doctors in some hospitals, Ms Mills said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Martha’s rule<\/a> will allow patients and families to seek an urgent review if their condition, or the condition of a loved one, is deteriorating and they feel their concerns are not being listened to.<\/p>\n They will be able to call an internal phone number and request a second opinion from a critical care outreach team.<\/p>\n Clinicians will also record daily insights and information about a patient’s health directly from their families.<\/p>\n “We hope it will do an immense amount of good by improving communication and encouraging doctors just to be more open and to listen to patients more carefully,” Ms Mills said.<\/p>\n “We also want patients to be able to challenge this culture of deference that we have, this sense that [the] doctor always knows best, because I personally have come to believe that a more equal relationship is a safer relationship,” she said.<\/p>\n Ms Mills added that she was not always confident her campaign for Martha’s rule would be successful. “The medical world is incredibly change-averse,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thirteen-year-old Martha was admitted to King’s College Hospital, south London, in 2021. She had injured her pancreas while cycling after slipping on to the handlebars of her bike.<\/p>\n