Children’s hospital becomes first to adopt Martha’s Rule in Switzerland

Martha's Rule is to be formally introduced at Lucerne Children’s Hospital Keystone-SDA

Following a pilot phase, the Children’s Hospital of Central Switzerland is the first institution in the country to introduce Martha’s Rule on a permanent basis. This means parents will have a greater say when they have serious concerns about their child’s health.

The Children’s Hospital, located in Lucerne, is the first of its kind to have adopted the initiative on a trial basis and is now embedding it permanently, a spokesperson told news agency Keystone-SDA on Monday, confirming a report that first appeared in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.

Martha’s Rule is an initiative designed to improve patient safety. It gives patients and their relatives the right to request an immediate, independent medical assessment at any time of the day or night if they feel the patient’s condition is deteriorating and the hospital staff treating them are not responding adequately.

The rule is named after the British woman Martha Mills. She died in hospital in 2021 from septic shock. Her parents had noticed life-threatening symptoms. However, the doctors treating her ignored their concerns. A coroner later concluded that had the doctors listened to the parents and transferred Martha to the intensive care unit in time, she would have survived.

Clearly defined escalation procedure

“Martha’s Rule enhances patient safety and parental involvement,” said the children’s hospital spokesperson. Parents often spend the most amount of time with their child and frequently notice changes at a very early stage. “With this clearly defined escalation procedure, we ensure that such observations are systematically recorded and, where necessary, independently reviewed,” the spokesperson added.

The trial phase yielded very positive results: around 40 Level 1 and Level 2 consultations were initiated. In these situations, parents expressed a sense of unease or concern that their child’s health was deteriorating. In two cases, an independent assessment by the designated treatment team was also requested.

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The pilot phase confirmed that Martha’s Rule provides a sensible and practical framework for incorporating parents’ perspectives into treatment even more systematically.

The Children’s Hospital of Central Switzerland originally launched the pilot phase in response to a fatality in February 2025, when a child died unexpectedly and the mother levelled accusations at the hospital.

Translated from German/sub-editing gw