Have your say on government e-petitions

Review NHS patient safety safeguards for infants

Submitted by Miss Lisa Wilcock on Sunday 25th January 2026

Published on Friday 10th April 2026

Current status: Open

Open until: Saturday 10th October 2026

Current Signatures: 30
(count is updated approximately hourly)

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

baby ~ Chest ~ Child ~ Deaths ~ Illness ~ Incidents ~ Law ~ NHS ~ NHS care ~ Observer ~ Opportunity ~ Primary ~ Repeat ~ Reviewed ~ Safety ~ safety law ~ Settings ~ URGENT ~ Urgent care

Petition Action

Review NHS patient safety safeguards for infants

Petition Details

Review patient safety law to improve early recognition & escalation of serious illness in babies & young infants across NHS care. A review could look at establishing clearer, more standardised & consistent safeguards to help reduce avoidable harm. This could be known as "Ophelia's Law'.

Additional Information

Ophelia attended primary and urgent care settings on multiple occasions with ongoing chest and respiratory symptoms. Despite repeated presentations, she was discharged without escalation, observation, or further investigation. She later died in her sleep from pneumonia. This reflects a wider patient safety issue recognised in national reviews of child deaths and serious incidents: repeat presentations, fragmented assessments, and inconsistent escalation can result in missed opportunities.


If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.

Sign this petition
at petition.parliament.uk

Have your say on this petition!

comments powered by Disqus

repetition.me is a Good Stuff website

216.73.217.179 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:34:36 +0100