Almost 20,000 older people waited over four hours for an ambulance after falls last year

EMBARGO: 22:30 Tuesday 19th March

• The Liberal Democrats launch their local election campaign unveiling shocking new figures of elderly patients waiting too long for an ambulance

• Ed Davey to visit Hertfordshire where he will declare this May “the chance to send this out of touch Conservative government a message”

• Number of older patients waiting over 4 hours for an ambulance after falling has almost doubled since 2019/20

• One patient waited close to three days for an ambulance to arrive after a fall

Almost 20,000 older people in England waited more than four hours for an ambulance to arrive after having a fall last year, more than double the number in 2019/20, figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

The Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will visit the Blue Wall battleground of Hertfordshire to launch his party’s local election campaign. Ed Davey will focus his party’s campaign on local health services. 

The new data was uncovered by the Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information requests to ambulance trusts in England. It shows there were 19,904 incidents in 2022/23 where someone aged over 65 had a fall and had to wait more than four hours for an ambulance to arrive, or an average of 54 people a day.

This is a stark 96.5% rise since before the pandemic in 2019/20 for the trusts that provided data across the full four years.

Even more shockingly, 1,411 older patients waited over 12 hours for an ambulance to arrive after falling last year, a more than tenfold increase compared to 2019/20. The East of England Ambulance Trust had the worst record with nearly 8,000 incidents that took longer than four hours and 769 that took longer than 12 hours to respond last year.

The West Midlands had an average response time for elderly falls of one hour 54 minutes and in that region a patient waited close to three days after experiencing a fall.

In one harrowing story, a patient fell off a ladder and broke their femur and then had to be wheeled into a car on an office chair and then driven to a hospital by their family because there was no ambulance available. The patient then had to for most of the day in an A&E corridor before being seen and then having an operation the next day.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to launch an urgent ‘Falls Prevention Plan’ to tackle long ambulance delays and reduce the number of elderly people suffering after falling at home. The Liberal Democrats want to invest funds in preventing trips and falls to save the NHS millions further down the line in costly surgery and treatments. 

This plan would include offering a trips and falls assessment at home to all those 70 and over, with improvements then made to reduce the risks of falling, such as using non-slip mats and rugs or ensuring rooms and staircases are well lit. Alongside this, strengthening exercises would be offered to limit the risk of falls for the elderly.  

This approach has already been successfully pioneered in Hertfordshire with an ‘Active Ageing’ programme provided by Hertfordshire Independent Living. 

Liberal Democrat Leader, Ed Davey MP said:

“This is a scandalous example of the damage done to our health service by years of neglect and chaos under this Conservative government.

“People should be confident that an ambulance will arrive in good time in an emergency. But as these shocking figures show, too often that is simply not happening.

“Everywhere you turn our health service is in crisis, from ambulance delays to people struggling to see their GP. 

“That is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for a Falls Prevention Plan, to help people avoid injury. 

“At these local elections, communities across the country will have the chance to send this out of touch Conservative government a message. 

“Above all else, the country desperately needs a General Election to get rid of a Conservative government which has run health services into the ground. 

“This May, families and pensioners have the chance to vote for local Liberal Democrat champions who will stand up for local health services.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The FOI data can be found here.

Case Study 1:

One patient fell off their ladder and broke their femur. Their family sent for an ambulance but was told none was available and to ring back. The patient was in a lot of pain and their family rang back but were again told there were no ambulances available. The family of the patient wheeled them in an office chair to their car but getting them into the car was very painful. Once at the hospital, the patient, still in considerable pain, was told to wait in A&E as they had not arrived by ambulance. Once inside, the A&E was like an “anthill” with people waiting on trolleys in corridors. The patient then stayed in one of these corridors for most of the day, then was seen and had an operation the next day. The surgeon could not believe that the patient could not get an ambulance after such a bad accident. 

Case Study 2:

An elderly patient fell off a curb, landed on their face, breaking and scattering many of their teeth across the road. The patient was then told it could take five hours for an ambulance to arrive so was taken to A&E by a neighbour. The patient then had to have a dentist appointment them the next day and is now missing teeth.

Liberal Democrat ‘Falls Prevention Plan’

The Liberal Democrats want to invest funds in preventing trips and falls to save the NHS millions further down the line in costly surgery and treatments.

Falls are a major cause of injury and death in older adults, accounting for more than 50% of admissions to hospital caused by unintentional injury and costing the NHS £4.6m per day, more than £2.3 billion every year and over 4 million bed days. 

A third of people over 65, and half of people over 80, fall at least once a year. Falls are the most common cause of death from injury in the over 65s. Nearly 9 million, or one in six people in the population in England was 65 or over at the time of the last census, and the figure is forecast to rise by another 2 million by 2021.

Exercise has been shown, not only to reduce the risk of falls by 23-34% for over 65s, but also to reduce the risk of illness such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, and improve mental wellbeing.

The Liberal Democrats are proposing an 8 week, tailored strengthening and exercise programme targeted at the over 75s, delivered 1-1 in their own home. For less frail people we will pilot, within the programme, preventative group sessions, providing a social element to integrating exercises and falls prevention into their lives. 

A slips, trips and falls assessment is done at the beginning of home sessions to ensure that the risk of fall is minimised.