Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will extend Jess’s Rule to cover NHS 111, A&E departments and Child Assessment Units, where repeated attendances may indicate an undiagnosed underlying condition.

Jess’s Rule is a primary care patient safety initiative. It asks general practice teams to reflect, review, and rethink when a patient presents three times with the same or escalating symptoms or concerns, particularly where symptoms remain unexplained or an existing treatment plan is not working.

Accident and emergency, NHS 111, and child assessment units operate in secondary care under their own clinical governance, assessment, and escalation arrangements, including access to paediatric services, where appropriate.

Martha’s Rule provides a separate escalation route in secondary care where a patient’s condition is deteriorating, and concerns are not being responded to. There are therefore no current plans to extend Jess’s Rule to any secondary care service, including accident and emergency departments or child assessment units.