Cost of Falls for the NHS

Commissioned by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and sanctioned by the Department of Health the Clinical Practice Guideline For The Assessment And Prevention Of Falls In Older People states that:

"Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of mortality resulting from injury in people aged over 75 in the UK. One-third to one-half of people aged over 65 fall each year. Furthermore, over 400,000 older people in England attend accident and emergency departments following an accident and up to 14,000 people die annually in the UK as a result of an osteoporotic hip fracture (National Service Framework for Older People 2001). Falling, therefore, has an impact on quality of life, health and healthcare costs."

In it's Hip Fracture: the management of hip fracture in adults guideline NICE goes on to say that:

"The annual cost of medical and social care for all the hip fracture cases in the UK amounts to about £2 billion. Demographic projections indicate that the UK annual incidence will rise to 91,500 by 2015 and 101,000 in 2020, with an associated increase in annual expenditure that could reach £2.2 billion by 2020. The majority of this expenditure will be accounted for by the hospital bed days and a further substantial contribution will come from health and social aftercare."

Hip fractures take up to 20% of orthopaedic bed occupancies in the United Kingdom and the length of hospital stay is currently averaging at 42 days per hip fracture. This is considered the most expensive osteoporosis fracture, as it costs the NHS approximately £25,000 per fracture, which is equivalent to 87% of the total cost of all fragility fractures. 30% of people who fall suffer a serious injury and a 25% of those suffer a functional decline.

A growing concern is the fact that

"Incidence rates for falls in nursing homes and hospitals are two to three times greater than in the community and complication rates are also considerably higher. Ten to twenty five per cent of institutional falls result in fracture, laceration or need for hospital care (Rubenstein 2001)."

Today many hospitals & residential, nursing and care homes are looking at ways to meet guidelines that NICE advise and consequently are investing in falls prevention sensors which have been proven to reduce the risk of falls amongst those in their care.

 

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