Partnership working helps get the right help to those who fall at home

September 18-22 is National Falls Week. People falling in their homes can account for up to 20% of the ambulance service’s calls.

Some of these falls result in serious injury and patients need to be transported to hospital urgently for further treatment.

However, many people that have fallen don’t have urgent injuries and just need to be helped to their feet, or a chair, and checked to ensure they’re safe.
It is essential, therefore, to respond to urgent patients quickly, while ensuring less urgent patients are not left waiting unnecessarily or transported to hospital without need.

EEAST has a Falls Response Programme operating across the region that uses partnership  working and innovative ways of working to help make sure that people who have fallen get the right help quickly. This can involve dedicated teams working with other healthcare agencies and also partnership working with Fire and Resue Services and specially trained first responders from the community and the military.

In Bedfordshire people who have had a fall at home have received fast, effective help during the past year thanks to an innovative partnership between EEAST, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and Bedfordshire Community Health Services.
Fire service community safety officers (non operational staff firefighters) use a dedicated vehicle based at Ampthill station to respond to calls which have first been clinically assessed as having low clinical urgency by EEAST.The crew has been specially trained to help the patient from the floor and carry out an assessment with a clinician in the EEAST control room to ensure the patient can be safely left at home.At the same time, the fire crew will also carry out a “safe and well” visit, during which they will check the fire safety arrangements in place at the patient’s home, including making sure they have working smoke alarms fitted.

The scheme has proved a great success since its introduction: around 70% of those who fell were given help and support to remain at home safely without the need for transport to an emergency department.
One service user commented: ‘I would give the service 10 out of 10, they were informative, explained what they were doing and how they were going to get my wife up off the floor with a special lift chair. They were perfect and very professional.’

In West Essex a falls car provided and staffed by EEAST clinicians with Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT) has been operating since June.
As well as helping those who  have fallen to be seen quickly, it also carries out assessments of patients’ homes to help prevent further falls.
Since its launch and the end of August, the programme has seen over 200 patients and, on average, has ensured 85% of them don’t need to be taken to hospital.

Tom Barker, EEAST’s community response manager for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and West Essex, said: “Even less serious falls can still be very distressing, so improving our response to these patients and reducing the time they are on the floor is essential.”