Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is introducing Call 4 Concern (C4C): a new safety service open to patients and their loved ones, empowering them to take an active role in the care being provided.
The service will be led by the Trust’s Critical Care Outreach Team (CCOT): a team that provides round-the-clock assistance to patients, outside of intensive care, who may be deteriorating.
Call 4 Concern will be available 24-hours a day, seven days a week at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The two sites are part of the first phase of NHS England’s roll out of this patient safety initiative.
Also known as ‘Martha’s Rule’ the service has been developed in collaboration with the NHS and the family of Martha Mills, a 13-year-old girl who died in 2021 after developing sepsis. In 2023, a coroner ruled that Martha probably would have survived if her family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition had been responded to and she been moved to intensive care earlier.
Through the service, patients or their loved ones, will be able to receive an urgent review if they feel a condition is deteriorating and there are concerns around response or treatment.
The service reflects the fact there may be indications beyond clinical vital signs (such as blood pressure or pulse readings) which could indicate deterioration in a patient’s health. These signs may be obvious to a patient, or those close to them, but not to teams focussed on clinical factors. The importance of these signals is particularly relevant in patients with special needs, autism, or dementia.
Julie Dawes, Chief Nurse at Hampshire Hospitals says: “Safety underpins everything we do at Hampshire Hospitals, and we welcome the introduction of Call 4 Concern which represents a valuable extension to our well-established Critical Care Outreach Team.
“C4C recognises the importance of acknowledging signs that may be non-clinical, but which could indicate deterioration in a patient.
“Naturally, we hope that patients and their loved ones feel they will be listened to when raising concerns in the first instance; however, through Call 4 Concern, a formal mechanism is in place for them to escalate issues directly with the Critical Care Outreach Team.
“We would like to pay tribute to the family of Martha Mills, whose dedicated work on Martha’s Rule has resulted in the establishment of this service. Through the heartbreaking loss of their daughter, Martha, they have significantly improved patient safety and care.”
Kate Edwards, Clinical Care Outreach Matron says: “We know that hospitals and clinical environments may be unfamiliar and potentially quite intimidating especially at a time when a loved one is at their most vulnerable. Through this service, we hope patients and their loved ones feel reassured that their concerns will be heard and responded to quickly.”
“The Outreach Team has been part of Hampshire Hospitals for some time, supporting teams caring for critically ill patients in our wards with specialist knowledge and experience. By growing our team to support C4C, we can provide the public with access to critical care expertise and support.”
