Important partnership created assist with falls and to free up ambulance crews in Peterborough

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service and East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust have partnered together to create a new service dedicated to assisting people who have fallen, hoping to prove crucial to freeing up ambulance crews to other callouts.

Falls can account for up to 20 percent of the ambulance service’s calls and although some patients will require hospital treatment, many simply need to be helped to their feet and checked over to make sure they are safe to be left at home.

Currently, if a person falls at home and has no injuries, they could have a long wait for an ambulance to become available.

The partnership is a 12-month pilot which will see four Community Wellbeing Officers work across Cambridgeshire responding to calls from people who have fallen.

The Community Wellbeing Officers completed a three-week emergency responder training with EEAST to learn the skills required for their role.

The new partnership aims to free up ambulance crews to attend the most seriously ill people in Cambridgeshire and this new programme aims to send a Community Wellbeing Officer within an hour of the call.

The aim of the partnership is also to allow paramedics to be available for serious medical emergencies, while making vulnerable residents safer in their homes.

How will the scheme work?

- When a call is received by EEAST via 999 or 111 to a person who has fallen it will be clinically assessed by the EEAST control room.

- If the patient doesn’t have any injuries, it will be assigned to the Community Wellbeing Officers.

- The officers, who will be working in pairs, will then be dispatched to the address to safely get the patient off the floor.

- The officers will then discuss the patient’s condition with a clinician in the EEAST control room to ensure the patient can be safely left at home.

- Once the officers have assisted the patient, they will also carry out a tailored home safety check to ensure their smoke alarms are working and will also help to reduce risk of fire or further falls

Cambridgeshire Fire Service Station Commander Scott Fretwell, Community Risk Manager said: “We are excited to be working in partnership with East of England Ambulance Service Trust to introduce community wellbeing officers.

“The collaboration will help to save lives, enhance patient experience and subsequently improve community welfare. When they are not responding to calls, the community wellbeing officers will be visiting homes of the most vulnerable people in our communities to help them stay safe from fire and other risks such as slips and falls.

“We are looking forward to seeing the positive impact of this new partnership over the coming months.”

Tom Barker, EEAST Community Response Manager said:“We’re delighted to be part of this collaboration with Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service which aims to improve the speed of response and increase support for people who have fallen in their homes.

“The people we’ll be responding to are the vulnerable members of our communities who will not only benefit from a quicker response to help them back on their feet, but also the person-centred home safety check that will be carried out at the same time.

“I am confident that this programme will see real benefits, for not only for the ambulance service, but more importantly to our vulnerable members of our community who we want to make sure are safe in their homes.”