Community response helps those who fall at home

September 23-27 is Falls Prevention Week, and East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has a network of community responders ready to help people who have fallen.

Falls can account for up to 20% of calls to the ambulance service and patients who have injured themselves may need to be taken to hospital quickly. However, many people that have fallen do not have injuries, and in many cases just need helping up and checked to ensure they’re safe to be left alone.  Around the region volunteers and co-responders from other services are helping these people get help fast.

Community First Responders

Many volunteer Community First Responders now have specialist training and equipment, funded with the help of the East of England Ambulance Service Charity and NHS Charites Together. This allows them to help people who have fallen and been clinically assessed as not needing an ambulance response. First responders carry out an additional on-scene checks of the patient before using a special Raizer chair to help them up and leave them safely at home. Since December 2023, 138 patients have been assessed by Community First Responders and discharged without the need for ambulance attendance.

Fire and Rescue Collaboration

Staff trained by EEAST in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex are now acting as Community Wellbeing Officers (CWO). Often working in more remote, rural areas, they respond to urgent medical emergencies until ambulance crews arrive and also attend minor incidents such as falls. Since last November, Community Wellbeing Officers have helped 443 people who had fallen. 40% of patients were discharged without further attendance by EEAST.

Military Co-responders

Military co-responders are military personnel with medical training who volunteer their services when they are off-duty. They respond to 999 calls until ambulance crews arrive. Military co-responders also respond to minor falls.   EEAST has 60 military co-responders operating from RAF bases across the region: RAF Henlow, RAF Wyton, RAF Marham and RAF Honington.   They operate from vehicles provided by EEAST and wear EEAST uniforms when on-call.  Between September 2023 – and August 2024 military co-responders attended 373 people who had fallen, with 30% being discharged without further EEAST attendance.

Tom Barker, Head of Collaborative Response for EEAST said:  “In Falls Prevention Week, we’d like to thank all our community response teams for their help in dealing with falls, which make up a significant portion of our calls. “Where people have serious falls, we respond as quickly as we can, but less urgent cases often involve vulnerable people, who also need a timely response – but not necessarily from paramedics.

Our teams can check on these patients, help them to a chair and make sure they are safe to be left alone and given appropriate advice without the need to wait for an ambulance crew to attend.

“This also means that more ambulance crews are free to attend our most urgent calls, so the contribution of our community response teams helps us respond to a wide range of patients.”