Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has identified gaps in escalation pathways between GP services operating under Jess’s Rule and urgent or emergency paediatric services where no equivalent trigger exists for repeated presentations.

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.