Falls pick-up service extended to help elderly care home residents in Blackpool
Date posted: 14th October 2022
People living in care homes across Blackpool can now rely on the support of a dedicated lifting service which helps people after a fall.
The long-established integrated home response and falls pick-up service, delivered by Blackpool Council’s Vitaline service, already helps elderly residents who have fallen in their own homes and are unable to get up again. Now, with the success of the service, and in a bid to reduce pressure on the ambulance service, it will be extended to cover care homes and nursing homes in Blackpool.
Cllr Jo Farrell, cabinet member for social care, health and wellbeing at Blackpool Council, said:
“The Vitaline falls pick-up service has made a big difference in helping to ease pressure on the NHS since it was launched in 2006 and in the last year alone more than 2,500 people have been helped back on to their feet. This winter is set to be another extremely challenging time for health and social care, and I’m pleased we’ve been able to extend this vital service so that care home and nursing home residents will soon face shorter waits for non-urgent falls.”
Figures released by the NHS show that around a third of adults over 65 living at home will have at least one fall a year but that most of these will not result in serious injuries. As such the service helps take the pressure off ambulance crews by reducing unnecessary calls but still provides reassurance to elderly people.
Dr David Levy, medical director for Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said:
“We hope that by extending the service to care home residents in Blackpool it will help relieve pressure on the ambulance service, freeing it to attend more critical calls. The average waiting time for someone needing this lifting service is just under 26 minutes, much lower than a non-urgent ambulance call-out.
“Most importantly it keeps the elderly person in their home environment and reduces the impact of a fall on the resident.”
The service is commissioned and funded by Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB – the organisation that plans and buys health services across the region – and the responders themselves are provided by Vitaline which aims to get to the scene quickly to help people up and ensure they are comfortable.
The fully trained responders check those who have fallen for any injuries and will call an ambulance or alert other services when necessary.
Referrals are made to the service when elderly people, their family, friends or carers call 999 or 111 in the event of a fall.
The service will be operational to care homes and nursing homes in Blackpool from Monday 17 October 2022. For more information email vitalinemanagers@blackpool.gov.uk