Documentation regarding Martha’s Rule: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide all recorded information held by the Scottish Government relating to national consideration, discussion, planning or exploratory work concerning Martha’s Rule / Call 4 Concern or any patient- or family-initiated escalation of care process in Scotland

This should include, but not be limited to:

• correspondence (including emails
• meeting notes or minutes
• briefings, submissions or internal advice
• records of engagement with professional groups or advisory bodies held between 1 January 2024 and the date of this request.

For the avoidance of doubt, this request includes preparatory, exploratory or deliberative material, regardless of whether any formal pilots, governance structures or national programmes were subsequently established. It also includes records of engagement or correspondence involving bodies such as the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) and the Scottish Association of Medical Directors (SAMD), where such information is held on Scottish  Government systems.

Response

I enclose a copy of the information we hold relating to your request, in electronic form. This includes emails, correspondence, briefings, and papers in which reference has been made to Martha’s Rule.

Where the information you have requested was part of a larger briefing, rather than redacting large sections of out of scope information, extracts that contain the relevant information have been provided.

In some documents an exemption under section 38(1) of FOISA (personal information) has been applied, including names and email addresses. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

While we aim to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not hold some of the material you have requested. Following searches of our records, we have not identified any further information on engagement with Scottish SAMD or SEND, beyond what has already been released to you.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold some of the information you have requested.

Although we have not been able to provide all the information sought, hopefully you will have enough information on the development of the policy and the steps that have been undertaken.

As noted in our last response you may wish to contact individual NHS Health Boards or Healthcare Improvement Scotland if you have any other questions in relation to the implementation of Martha’s Rule.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600509105 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

12.0 MB