Fall Prevention For Vulnerable Patients

Christopher Nevill Lettings have created an exciting partnership with Hillingdon Hospitals Charity to fundraise for an important local cause that will help vulnerable patients that are being cared for in Hillingdon Hospital.

Older people who experience falls are frequently in contact with nurses in all sectors of health care.

Falls and fractures in older people are a costly and often preventable health issue. Reducing falls and fractures is important for maintaining health, wellbeing and independence amongst older people.

A fall is defined as an event which causes a person to, unintentionally, rest on the ground or lower level, and is not a result of a major intrinsic event (such as a stroke) or overwhelming hazard. Having a fall can happen to anyone; it is an unfortunate but normal result of human anatomy. However, as people get older, they are more likely to fall over. Falls can become recurrent and result in injuries including head injuries and hip fractures.

Falls are events resulting from the presence of risk factors. The likelihood and severity of injury resulting from an event is related to bone health. People with low bone mineral density are more likely to experience a fracture following a fall. One of the main reasons why people have low bone mineral density is osteoporosis.

Over 3 million people in the UK have osteoporosis and they are at much greater risk of fragility fractures. Hip fractures alone account for 1.8 million hospital bed days and £1.9 Billion in hospital costs every year, excluding the high cost of social care.

‘Think Yellow Fall Prevention Kit’

This is a Blanket and a pair of slipper socks in a package – the idea being that these are offered to patients who are deemed to be very high risk of falls and unable to recognise their own risk.

It is a visual aid to ward staff, multidisciplinary team and anyone who visits the ward so that extra caution can be applied to the management of these patients.

The aim would be to reduce the number of falls for these patients- most importantly reducing the risk of falls with harm.

To Buy 500 of these kits we are looking at £2050. Additionally, we would also like to provide yellow wrist bands and yellow magnets for the patient boards.

In all we would estimate a funding need of £2,250 to purchase 500 complete kits.