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The Walton Centre joins rollout of national ‘Martha’s Rule’ major patient safety initiative

The Walton Centre has joined a national initiative which aims to support patients and families who want to seek urgent reviews if their loved one’s condition deteriorates.

Last year, the specialist Trust implemented ‘Call 4 Concern’, which is one of the ways in which The Walton Centre will implement Martha’s Rule.

The NHS announced that 143 hospital sites will test and roll out Martha’s Rule in the first year, as part of a major patient safety initiative, following the announcement in February of NHS England funding.

The initial target was to enrol at least 100 sites, but due to significant interest from frontline clinicians this has been expanded, meaning this first phase of the programme will be in place at 143 locations across the country by March 2025.

Evaluation of how the system works in these sites over the course of this year will inform proposals for Martha’s Rule to be expanded further across all acute hospitals, subject to future government funding.

The purpose of Martha’s Rule is to provide a consistent and understandable way for patients and families to seek an urgent review if their or their loved one’s condition deteriorates and they are concerned this is not being responded to.

The scheme is named after thirteen-year-old Martha Mills, who died from sepsis having been treated at King’s College Hospital, London, in 2021, due to a failure to escalate her to intensive care, and after her family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to.

NHS England is working with Martha’s parents to develop materials to advertise and explain the initiative in hospitals across the country, to ensure it is something that all patients, staff, and their families can recognise.

Martha’s Rule is to be made up of three components to ensure concerns about deterioration can be swiftly responded to.

Firstly, an escalation process will be available 24/7 at all the 143 sites, advertised throughout the hospitals on posters and leaflets, enabling patients and families to contact a critical care outreach team that can swiftly assess a case and escalate care if necessary. Secondly, NHS staff will also have access to this same process if they have concerns about a patient’s condition.

Finally, alongside this, clinicians at participating hospitals will also formally record daily insights and information about a patient’s health directly from their families, ensuring any concerning changes in behaviour or condition noticed by the people who know the patient best are considered by staff.

Extensive campaigning by her parents Merope and Paul, supported by the cross-party think tank Demos, saw widespread support for a single system that allows patients or their families to trigger an urgent clinical review from a different team in the hospital if the patient’s condition is rapidly worsening and they feel they are not getting the care they need.

Merope Mills and Paul Laity, Martha’s parents, said: "We are pleased that the roll-out of Martha's Rule is off to a flying start and that the need for it has been so widely recognised. It will save lives and encourage better, more open, communication on hospital wards, so that patients feel they are listened to, and partners in their healthcare." 

Nicola Martin, The Walton Centre’s Chief Nurse, said: “We’re proud to join the other NHS hospitals taking part in this initial rollout of Martha’s Rule. Here at The Walton Centre, our clinical staff have always worked closely with families and friends of patients receiving care and treatment through Call 4 Concern. Supporting this process through Martha’s Rule will mean every patient will get an enhanced level of support and care at what can be a crucial part of their lives.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “Rolling out Martha’s Rule to over 143 NHS sites in this first phase will represent one of the most important changes to patient care in recent years, and we are pleased to have seen such interest from hospitals right across the country, all thanks to the moving and dedicated campaigning by Martha’ parents, Merope and Paul. 

“That is why today is such an important milestone, with the NHS outlining the 143 sites where this major patient safety initiative will be rolled out later this year, allowing staff, patients and families to immediately raise concerns and bring about an escalation in care in an easily recognisable and fast way.

“The inclusion of daily insights from families about their loved ones’ condition within patient records is also a really significant step and will help staff identify changes and deterioration using insights from those who know the patient best. While thankfully the need for escalation of care will hopefully only be needed in a limited number of cases, this three-step safety net has the opportunity to truly transform patient care and safety.”

NHS national patient safety director and senior responsible officer for Martha’s Rule, Dr Aidan Fowler, said: “Working closely with Martha’s parents and colleagues across the NHS over the last few months on this rollout, I am in no doubt this programme will deliver clear change and it has been so encouraging to see how many hospitals have shown interest in being part of delivering these all-important patient safety measures this year.

“With new processes that enable both patients and staff to raise concerns if they see someone’s condition worsening, and the inclusion of patients and their loved ones’ insights in medical records, these measures can help us better identify and manage deterioration as part of wider work, which is a key priority for us and will no doubt lead to improvements in the care patients receive.”

-Ends-

Notes to editors

Further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the Communications Team at The Walton Centre on 0151 556 3397 or wcft.communications@nhs.net

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is the only hospital trust in the UK specialising in neurology, neurosurgery and pain services. Although the majority of patients come from Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, for some specialist treatments of complex disorders we see patients from all parts of the country, referred by their GPs or other neurologists, neurosurgeons and pain clinicians.

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission. The independent regulator of all health and social care services in England published its rating on Friday 21 October 2016, following announced and unannounced inspection visits to the Trust in April 2016.

For more information please visit: www.thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk or follow the Trust on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Lower Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool L9 7LJ
0151 525 3611

 

Read The Walton Centre joins rollout of national ‘Martha’s Rule’ major patient safety initiative…

Liane tells her epilepsy story for Epilepsy Awareness Week

At the age of 31, Liane Draper was working fulltime and looking after two young children, when she began to experience seizures that left her with lockjaw and black spots in her memory.

Liane felt that her busy, stressful routine with family and work may have contributed to the situation in which her Epilepsy was discovered. She said: “At the time I didn’t stop. I’d do a full day’s work, then come home, sort out the girls and then spend the whole evening cleaning the house top to bottom. Looking back now I think it’s safe to say I was struggling mental health-wise. I wanted everything to be clean and tidy, but obviously I went too far with it.”

The 44-year-old, from St Helens, was diagnosed with Epilepsy and was referred to The Walton Centre for treatment.

She said: “I’ve had lots of scans and treatment over the years to really pin down which parts of the brain my seizures are coming from. The Walton Centre has been amazing throughout. I’m able to speak to experts about my care regardless of what it is. I really appreciate their support and their ability as a team to look after me from a number of different perspectives.”

At the beginning of 2022, Liane had a procedure where telemetric sensors were inserted into her brain, to further study the origins of her seizures. Then, in December that year, Liane underwent brain surgery, after which she is yet to experience another seizure.

Liane continued: “It was a long surgery, and I’m still on anti-epilepsy medication, but to be so far seizure-free is incredible, and I cannot thank The Walton Centre enough. The hospital is like my security blanket. Particularly Professor Tony Marson and the team, they are focused, empathetic and incredibly compassionate.” 

The Walton Centre hosts one of the largest Epilepsy services in the UK. The specialist Trust offers multidisciplinary care, from the first seizure through to complex epilepsy and brain surgery. The hospital has recently been announced as one of only two centres for Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy, a cutting-edge procedure for patients with Epilepsy that is not easily controlled with medication.

For more information on our Epilepsy services at The Walton Centre, head to our website: Epilepsy

Read Liane tells her epilepsy story for Epilepsy Awareness Week…

Spotlight on... Melanie Taylor, Principal Speech and Language Therapist

What is your job role?

Lead for Speech and Language Therapy within The Walton Centre.

 

What made you choose to do the job you are in now?

My mum was a nurse, so I knew from an early age that I wanted to go into something health care related. Having a chat and a cup of coffee is massively important to me so when I found out there was a job to help others with that - I knew it was the one for me!

 

Favourite part of your job?

So many to choose from, its hard to pick! It is such a varied job and no two days are the same, but the best part of the job is getting to know people and their stories. When we first give people the ability to communicate, for example patients with tracheostomies on ITU, it can be very emotional for all involved! I also love when we can get people eating or drinking again and finding out what the 'first tastes' are that they would go for. 

I’m also lucky enough to have been able to set up an Multi Disciplinary Team secretion management clinic for some of our Motor Neurone Disease patients – drooling is so socially stigmatized that it often causes people to become socially isolated and being able to address that and give people confidence to spend time with family and friends again is a real privilege. 

 

Tell me about the most rewarding experience you have had in your role.

I’m lucky that I love most things about my job but there will always be the patients that stick with you. I think when we’ve worked really hard with someone to get their swallow going – often from the very early stages on Intensive Care Unit when they can’t even manage their own saliva and have to have a tracheostomy and the distress that causes. We support them all through their journey – getting them communicating again, rehabilitating the swallow so we can get the tracheostomy out alongside the Multi Disciplinary Team and then carrying on with our input until we manage to get them eating and drinking again. Making them that first cup of coffee or getting them that first bar of chocolate always makes it all worth it. 

 

What's the best advice you've received at work?

You can always add something positive to someone’s day – even if it doesn’t feel like it in the moment! The gains we make might seem small at the time but they can all add up to be a big thing.

 

What/who is your biggest motivator at work?

It sounds really obvious but the patients are definitely the biggest motivator – even when we don’t manage to get the outcomes we all wanted, knowing that we’ve done everything we can, that we’ve used the most up-to-date evidence and therapy and there really is nothing else we could have tried makes it a bit easier, for us as well as the patients. Being able to reassure the Speech and Language Therapy team of that as well goes a long way towards keeping morale high in tough times and in keeping the team motivated. 

 

What is on your bucket list for this year?

Work wise, becoming one of the first Speech and Language Therapists in the country to be able to offer botulinum toxin injections for saliva control and trying out new developments such as Biozoon (flavoured air) with our nil by mouth patients and evaluating the impact of this.  Outside of work I’d like to finally take the trip to Iceland (the country!) I was supposed to do in 2000.

Read Spotlight on... Melanie Taylor, Principal Speech and Language Therapist…

Emily shares her story as part of Epilepsy Awareness Week

Since 2007, Emily Lloyd has been treated at The Walton Centre to manage her epilepsy. As a teenager in 2002, Emily experienced her first seizure and was cared for by Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Transitioning to The Walton Centre, Emily was able to work with her clinicians on the best treatments and innovations possible to live with her condition.

Making her way through different medications to control her seizures, Emily found the rate of instances was unreliable and hard to manage.

She said: “I had both absence and tonic-clonic seizures and they were happening very frequently - my body was not getting time to recover before the next instance. I was constantly exhausted and also it was getting dangerous. One time I had a seizure while straightening my hair, burning my face, and another time I collapsed waiting for a train, falling onto the tracks. I was also struggling to think clearly, and my memory was extremely poor. I went back to Professor Tony Marson and the team at The Walton Centre for a better solution.”

Tonic-clonic seizures involve both tonic (stiffening) and clonic (twitching or jerking) phases of muscle activity, a serious disruption to people who experience them. During ongoing treatment and investigations, the specialist epilepsy service at the Trust recommended that Emily consider a Vagal Nerve Stimulator. A stimulator such as this is considered for patients where a specific area of the brain causing seizures cannot be identified. The device detects a seizure forming, and disrupts the episode with an electric signal, essentially stalling the seizure. Emily underwent the pathway in 2018.

The 35-year-old from Liverpool said: “After it had been turned on and calibrated, the rate of seizures dropped dramatically. I’ve gone from weekly instances, to approximately two tonic-clonic seizures a month. Having the rate decrease like this has meant I can notice how other environmental factors such as stress and sleep influence my epilepsy. I can also see a huge change in thinking and memory due to the reduction in absence seizures.

“I can only thank the team at The Walton Centre for the incredible support they have given me over the years. With their help I’ve been able to take control of my condition as much as possible, and therefore improve my quality of life.

“The team are so supportive, especially the Epilepsy Specialist Nurses – they’ve been invaluable. They’ve helped me to incorporate seizure awareness into my workplace and now they’re supporting me in managing my condition in conjunction with starting a family. I’ve also been able to take part in research which will hopefully help improve services for other patients.”

The Walton Centre hosts one of the largest Epilepsy services in the UK. The specialist Trust offers multidisciplinary care, from the first seizure through to complex epilepsy and brain surgery. The hospital has recently been announced as one of only two centres for Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy, a cutting-edge procedure for patients with Epilepsy that is not easily controlled with medication.

More information here: Epilepsy

Read Emily shares her story as part of Epilepsy Awareness Week…

Coping Better Together - Patient Information Event 2024/2025

Have you or a member of your family had a brain tumour diagnosis or brain tumour surgery in the last year? 

We are holding two patient events called 'Coping Better Together' to help give you extra information and extra support. The events will be held on Friday 20 September 2024 and Friday 14 March 2025.

You can register for the event or alternatively, leave the team a voice mail on 0151 556 3778 and state your name, date of birth, telephone number, which date you wish to attend and whether you will be attending face to face or on Microsoft Teams.

Read Coping Better Together - Patient Information Event 2024/2025…

200 mile a week cyclist Dave is fighting fit after recovering from a bleed on the brain

In October 2022, retired police officer Dave Smith was treated at The Walton Centre for a ruptured brain aneurysm. Dave, aged 56 at the time, was out with friends on a Saturday afternoon watching a live rugby match on the touchline when he suddenly developed double vision and slight unsteadiness on his feet.

Dave said, “I was chatting with pals about the match, when suddenly I felt as though I was looking through a kaleidoscope. The club doctor had a look at me and called for an ambulance.”

Dave was rushed to A&E in a friend’s car, where the team there suspected a stroke. However, after further testing and a scan, they found a ruptured aneurysm and he was transferred to The Walton Centre.

Dave said, “They told me I would need emergency surgery, to deal with the bleed. I had a procedure where the aneurysm was ‘coiled’ – everything was explained to me in a calm and reassuring manner which put me at ease".

Endovascular coiling is when tiny platinum coils are placed inside the vessel in the brain causing the bleed. This then prevents the vessel from growing or rupturing further.  

When Dave woke up from his procedure, he said he felt surprisingly good. He had no head pain or sickness after the treatment but was experiencing fatigue and sight problems.

Dave said “I felt brilliant after the procedure. The only thing I was left with though was double vision, this worried me as I didn’t know whether I would be able to be as active. There was no guarantee that the double vision would correct itself, so that was my only concern.”

Thankfully, the double vision began to disappear. Dave explained “Before the aneurysm, I was cycling 200 miles per week and I’m an avid walker and hill climber. My biggest fear was that I would not be able to return to this level of fitness. It’s been an interesting year and a half, but I am finally back to the level I was before the aneurysm. I couldn’t be happier.”

Dave, now 58, will continue to have yearly check-ups and scans at The Walton Centre to monitor his progress.

Dave expressed his gratitude to The Walton Centre saying “I have nothing but praise for the people in the NHS. I honestly couldn’t be more thankful for the amazing staff at the hospital for their exceptional care.”

Read 200 mile a week cyclist Dave is fighting fit after recovering from a bleed on the brain…

It is Greener AHP Week!

Greener Allied Health Professional awareness week is between Monday 22 April and Friday 26 April. Greener AHP week is a chance to raise awareness of how the Trust is becoming more sustainable and how we are committing to NHS net zero.

At the Trust we have been making a conscious effort to be more sustainable as a team. An example of this is our AHPs encouraging patients to return their walking aids that they are no longer using. This has led to us reducing waste and also reducing purchasing costs for the Trust.

Our AHPs have also been involved in things such as our feed bottles recycling project. Denise O’Dwyer, an Advanced Dietician at The Walton Centre said: “This was a project that was identified by the dietetic team at The Walton Centre through patient feedback when a patient highlighted concerns about how much plastic waste was generated when patients were reliant on Enteral feeding (single use syringes, multiple feed bottles daily, sterile water bottles, giving sets).

“It was something I was passionate to take forward with the aim to minimise plastic waste in this patient group. We have recently changed our patient feed bottles (2,220 per annum) from going in clinical waste to mixed plastics recycling."

This project was piloted on Horsley ICU, Denise said "Bottles were previously discarded into clinical waste, but by simply washing them out, they could be put into mixed plastics recycling. Across the Trust, this will save us 60kgCo2E which is the equivalent of driving from The Walton Centre to Portsmouth in a family car."

“The project was supported by the Facilities and Sustainability teams to help implement it on ICU. It’s a project that required a collaborative approach with the MDT to ensure its success. An aspiration going forward would be to implement this across all clinical areas within the trust and to consider recycling of nutritional supplement bottles.”

Read It is Greener AHP Week!…

Spotlight on... Beth Davies, Head of Finance - Neurosurgery

1. What is your job role?

Head of Finance for Neurosurgery.

2.    What made you choose to do the job you are in now?

I first heard about The Walton Centre when my brother spent five weeks on Horsley ITU after a road traffic accident. I was so impressed with the care he received that I wanted to work here. An opportunity came up as a finance assistant 14 years ago and I was lucky enough to get the job. I have stayed within finance learning and taking on different roles but always staying here at the Trust.

3.    What is your favourite part of your job?

Being able to spend time with the different departments and learning about what they do. It’s good to be able to get out of the finance office and see what goes on in the Trust.

4.    Tell me about the most rewarding experience you have had in your role.

I recently spent the day in the Labs so I could try and get a better understanding of how they work and what they do. It was amazing to see some of the people that I usually only see in a finance meeting capacity in ‘action’, the work they do is incredible and interesting. It was a reminder of the fantastic work we do here for our patients, and it makes me proud to think that I play a part in helping to make that happen.

5.  What/who is your biggest motivator at work?

Definitely our patients and their families. It is a very personal thing for me.

6.    What is the best advice you have received at work?

If an opportunity comes up, even if it scares you, just give it a go. You never know what it could lead to.

7.    What is on your bucket list for this year?

To visit Morocco with my dad.

Read Spotlight on... Beth Davies, Head of Finance - Neurosurgery…
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