Last winter, we received over 8,000 falls-related calls, making it one of the top five reasons for 999 calls. But not all these required an ambulance.

In response, our staff have participated in a falls Continued Professional Development (CPD) session. The training equips them with knowledge of preventative measures, helping them to educate patients and their carers on how to reduce the risk of falls.

Caroline Hargreaves, Senior Paramedic Team Leader, and lead for care home engagement and falls in East Lancashire, said: “This is a great CPD session for our staff to learn more about the effects and interactions of medication, and how long-term use without review can increase the risk of falls and injury and illness in older people. We have introduced direct referral pathways to enable a rapid review for this group of patients.”

Caroline has been leading on a collaborative project with local services to deliver information and education sessions to assist care home staff when dealing with falls and unwell residents.

The two-hour sessions provide advice for staff and help them know how to make the right call for help when needed. She added: “The medication team attends care homes across East Lancashire as part of our engagement sessions, alongside the falls lifting team, care home nurses and two-hour urgent community response, where we provide up-to-date information about each service and education around frailty. This enables their staff to feel more confident when dealing with falls and falls risk.”

Currently active in East Lancashire, the project includes plans to develop a falls induction pack for all care homes, with the goal of sharing this resource across the North West.

Falls prevention is also one of the key areas of focus of this year’s winter communications plan, which helps support peak demand for 111 and 999 services from October to February. By analysing 999 call data, we have identified individuals aged 70 and over in the Preston area -where the highest volume of falls-related calls occurred last winter – as our primary target. Through a variety of communication channels and face-to-face engagement, we will help to educate our public on falls prevention and provide guidance on how to access our services appropriately.