Agenda item

Falls Prevention System Review: Final Report and Recommendations

Minutes:

Report CS18159

 

The Board considered the final report of the Falls Task and Finish Group.

 

The Falls Task and Finish Group was convened by the Health and Wellbeing Board to investigate the number and types of falls affecting Bromley’s older population and consider falls prevention work in Bromley, including assessing the level of collaboration across primary, secondary, community and social care providers.  The review was chaired by Professor Cameron Swift and a range of work had been undertaken including data analysis to establish falls epidemiology in the Borough and meetings with primary, secondary, community and social care partners.  The final report of the Falls Task and Finish Group presented a number of recommendations including improving data management and systems, data sharing to identify a strategy to reduce falls in the Borough, increased case identification and referrals to prevention services, workforce development and collaboration across services.  It was proposed that the final report of the Falls Task and Finish Group be presented to the Integrated Commissioning Board and that a Bromley Joint Working Group be established to take forward the recommendations of the review within a specified timescale.

 

In considering the report, a Member stressed the high number of locums and agency staff within primary care and underlined the importance of ensuring that General Practitioners and healthcare organisations were made aware of the support services available to encourage falls referrals.  Another Member noted the value of information sharing between health agencies.  Mark Cheung, Programme Director: Integrated Care Services, Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group suggested that the proposals reflected the move towards increasingly integrated service models between key health partners, and that there was a need to remove artificial divides between health and social care services.  Another Board Member highlighted that the cohort most vulnerable to falls was often reluctant to engage with services until the point of crisis, and that key messages around falls prevention should be conveyed in different ways, such as via residents’ associations or community publications.  A number of private companies provided health and social care support to Bromley residents and these companies should also be made aware of falls prevention work in Bromley.  Another Member suggested that the built environment of care homes be assessed to minimise the risk of falls by care home residents.

 

A Board Member recognised the link between falls and loss of confidence and noted that this could lead to increased risk of social isolation.  From a safeguarding perspective, domestic abuse could also be a causative factor of falls in some cases and partners should be made aware of this.

 

Members requested that regular updates be provided to the Health and Wellbeing Board to ensure that the recommendations of the Falls Task and Finish Group were delivered in a timely way.  To support this, the Programme Director: Integrated Care Services, Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group agreed to act as Lead Officer for this workstream and an update on the Falls Task and Finish Group would be included as part of the regular update to the Board on the work of the Integrated Commissioning Board. 

 

Action Point: Regular updates to be provided to the Health and Wellbeing Board on the implementation of the recommendations of the Falls Task and Finish Group including written updates to be scheduled for 6 and 12 months.

 

The Chairman led Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board in thanking Professor Cameron Swift and Laura Austin-Croft for the excellent work that had been undertaken in driving forward the Falls Task and Finish Group, as well as all the primary, secondary, community and social care partners who had contributed towards the review, and suggested that the report be prepared for academic publication.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1)  The final report of the Falls Task and Finish Group be approved; and,

 

2)  The report be presented to the Integrated Commissioning Board, with a proposal that a Bromley Joint Working Group be established to take the recommendations forward within a specified timescale.  This would include a prioritisation process to enable identified recommendations to be taken forward over the next 12 months.

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