Fire and Rescue Service celebrates anniversary of falls response and home from hospital teams

We are celebrating the anniversary of two of our vital teams which have relieved pressure on the NHS and supported over 3,500 vulnerable people.

Our falls response team attend non-injury falls to relieve pressure on the ambulance service whilst our homes from hospital team transport patients back home after a hospital stay and ensure they are settled back into their properties. Both teams have dedicated personnel that are not on duty firefighters.

Our falls response team, which was launched on 7 December 2022, and our home-from-hospital team, that was formed on 4 December 2023, have so far earned a number of awards. Both projects are supported by the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent integrated care board and the Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

The home from hospital scheme is run by our Fire and Health Partnership Technicians and sees our personnel transport patients home from the Royal Stoke University hospital and making sure they are settled safely back into their properties. This can include ensuring the water and heating supplies are working, identifying any potential hazards, checking they have food and access to a phone and completing a fire safety check.

So far, since its launch in December last year up to the end of September this year, we have been called out 1,554 times to help people return to their homes from hospital.

As part of the project, the team has not only helped individuals return home but also carried out property inspections, moved furniture and fitted a number of key safes.

Benefits of the team’s work include speeding up the process of hospital discharge, reducing the likelihood of re-admission and working to ensure ongoing care arrangements coincide with the individual’s arrival home.

Similarly, our falls response team continues to respond to non-injury falls where patients may need to be helped to their feet or a chair, and checked to ensure they are okay.

The team has received bespoke training to use specialist equipment so as to help the individual who has fallen before looking to address any hazards or obstacles that may have contributed to the incident.

Members of the team are each trained in first responder emergency care (FREC) to help anyone in need of support and operate a service during the day, seven days a week.

Since its inception up to the end of September 2024, the team has been called out to help 1,900 times to assist patients who have fallen and have subsequently carried out safe-and-well checks.

Head of Prevent, Protect and Partnerships, Ian Read, said: “Both of these schemes are benefitting the most vulnerable and also helping our colleagues in the NHS at a crucial time, particularly during the busy winter months. Our falls service reduces both demand for ambulances and potential hospital admissions caused by ‘long lies’ and the casualties we respond to are so pleased to have a quick response that doesn’t take ambulances away from more serious emergencies.

“The feedback we have had for our home from hospital scheme has been fantastic. For people who may have had a stay in hospital the prospect of coming home, particularly if they live alone, can be quite daunting. So to have someone there to help you settle back in and check you have everything you need has been really welcomed.

“Anything that we can do to assist vulnerable people and ensure they can safely remain in their own homes, we will continue to do, to prevent any unnecessary hospital admissions and to protect those in need within our communities.”

Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, Chief Medical Officer, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB, said: “This scheme is a wonderful example of joint working with our blue-light colleagues. It helps reduce pressure on the NHS during out busiest time of year and it also ensures people are living in safer homes, reducing the likelihood they will have unfortunate accidents in the future."

Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire & Rescue and Crime Ben Adams said: “I’m delighted to see Staffordshire Fire & Rescue’s falls response and home from hospital schemes continue to go from strength to strength, offering potentially life-saving support to thousands of vulnerable people.

“This forward-thinking approach, using the expertise and capability of the teams to support other areas of demand such as health, has rightly been recognised nationally as an excellent example of the ‘and Rescue’ part of the Service’s name.”

To find out more about ensuring fire safety in the home, visit: Your Safety.