Implementing Jess's rule in England's primary care
In September 2025, NHS England launched Jess’s rule, describing it as a “life-saving patient safety initiative” to encourage general practitioners to “reflect, review, rethink” if a patient presents three times with the same or escalating symptoms.
In this BMJ Editorial, Prof Paul Bowie (NES Programme Director) and UK primary care research colleagues, reflect on the complexities of the clinical diagnostic process and this specific intervention from a Human Factors sociotechnical perspective. The relevance and feasibility of this intervention is currently being explored in the Scottish primary care context.
