JOSEPHINE Lakin's story is deeply upsetting for all concerned, most especially for her family.
I would like to reaffirm our commitment to reducing falls in our hospitals, and our recent progress in this priority area.
Falls take a terrible toll on our patients and their loved ones.
Every fall has a cost: in physical injuries, in lost confidence, and in fear of further falls. Each of these factors reduces the likelihood that a patient will retain or regain their independence.
Falls are not inevitable and most can be prevented by timely interventions. We have an extensive programme across our hospitals – as part of our trust-wide patient safety programme – to understand which patients fall, and why.
This allows us to identify those patients most at risk of falling and to take preventative measures for and with them.
Our multi-disciplinary Falls Prevention Team and Falls Champions support our nurses across our wards, notably on those where we care for patients who are especially frail or confused, who are at highest risk of falling.
Central to this work is "Caring around the Clock" – which ensures patients, especially those at high risk of falls, receive regular checks.
Our Stop Falls! Act Now campaign reinforces to all colleagues how we can each prevent falls by paying attention to poor footwear, multiple medications, poor vision and confusion.
Last year we challenged ourselves to reduce falls in our hospitals by 10 per cent. We achieved eight per cent overall and 35 per cent for falls causing the most serious harms.
I'm personally involved in our comprehensive patient safety programme, including our falls reduction work.
Each month I chair the Falls Operational Group of clinical colleagues. This discusses individual falls, and shares learning and best practice, with the aim of continuously reducing the harm from falls experienced by patients in our hospitals.
We have more work to do, but we are committed to ensuring patients are ever-safer in our care. Making year-on-year progress is one of our key priorities for 2013/14.
We closely monitor and share our progress throughout the year with our patients, staff and local community at our public board meetings.
