Children’s early warning system

Parents’ concerns will be at the centre of a new early warning system for acute paediatric care being rolled out across the NHS, officials say. The system will standardise monitoring of vital signs across all hospitals, and establish parents’ right to “immediate escalation” and a second opinion if they’re worried their child’s condition is deteriorating faster than the numbers indicate. The Paediatric Early Warning System has been in the works for three years, the BBC reports, but is being linked by government to the case of Martha Mills, who died aged 13 in 2021 from avoidable failures in the treatment of her sepsis at King’s College Hospital in London. The patient safety commissioner has recommended the national rollout of Martha’s Rule, proposed by her parents, which calls for an automatic right for parents and carers to a second opinion and rapid review by a critical care team when they fear a child’s health is going downhill unnoticed. And the health minister Maria Caulfield said Martha’s case showed “it’s vital to give parents a voice”. The signs are they will, at last.