Falls partnership hailed a success

More than 100 people who have suffered a fall at home have received fast, effective help during the past year thanks to an innovative partnership between the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) and Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The falls response programme sees fire service community safety officers (non fire-trained personnel) use a dedicated vehicle based at Ampthill station to respond to calls which have first been clinically assessed by EEAST.

The crew has been specially trained to help the patient from the floor and carry out an assessment. This is then discussed 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 what is known as 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 one year ago, with fire crews responding to a total of 120 people in an average time of 22 minutes. Of those individuals, 70% were given the right help and support to allow them to remain at home safely, in turn saving a trip to an emergency department.

Tom Barker, EEAST’s community response manager for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and West Essex, said: “Falls are common, and can account for up to 20% of the calls we receive. Although patients may require hospital treatment in more serious cases, others simply need to be helped to their feet and checked over to make sure they are safe to be left at home.

“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.

“We are really pleased with how successful the first year of this partnership has been and look forward to continuing to work closely with our blue light colleagues in the future to ensure these patients receive prompt access to help and assessment.”

Stuart Auger, homes, roads and leisure safety manager with Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We set up this falls response programme across Bedfordshire with the commitment of our existing community-based safety staff.

“It enables us to further develop the collaborative opportunities with our emergency service colleagues, which ultimately help to make people feel safer in their homes. The commitment of our staff to this activity from the very start has been great to see.

“The team started off small and has grown over the year so that we are able to provide even more support to EEAST. This service has enabled us to effectively contribute to helping vulnerable people across Bedfordshire who need our assistance.”