Families’ right for urgent review of patient care
By Nerea Odongo
Chief Nurse
Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals
No-one knows a person better than the loved ones closest to them and they may be the first to recognise the smallest changes in health.
We also know that any deterioration in someone’s condition can be worrying and you may have questions about what is happening.
If they are staying on a hospital ward, the clinical team supporting their care will be at hand to help you understand any care plan that will be in place.
However, if you feel your concerns about someone’s deteriorating condition have still not been addressed, the Call for Concern service offers access to an independent rapid review for urgent help and advice. You may have also heard this called ‘Martha’s Rule’.
Martha Mills died in 2021 after developing sepsis in hospital in London, where she had been admitted with a pancreatic injury after falling off her bike. Martha’s family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to, and in 2023 a coroner ruled that Martha would probably have survived had she been moved to intensive care earlier.
In response to this and other cases related to the management of deterioration, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England committed to implement ‘Martha’s Rule’ in the NHS nationally; to ensure the vitally important concerns of the patient and those who know the patient best are listened to and acted upon.
The Call for Concern service is our way of implementing ‘Martha’s Rule’ in Lincolnshire.
It has been available at Lincoln County Hospital and Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, since December 2025 and February 2026 respectively, and has expanded to our four community hospitals.
John Coupland Hospital, Gainsborough, County Hospital, Louth, Skegness Hospital and Johnson Community Hospital in Spalding, were among the first wave of community-based NHS services nationally to introduce the service from March 2026.
The dedicated Call for Concern telephone number for Lincoln is 07393 009049.