Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards and hospital trusts to prevent falls inside hospitals.

We are informed by NHS England that there have been no recent discussions or directives to hospitals or integrated care boards on the prevention of falls inside hospitals, although we are aware of wider work to support fall prevention, including NHS England’s public health initiative, Harnessing the benefits of physical activity, and the ongoing National Audit of Inpatient Falls that NHS England commissions via the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. Further information on Harnessing the benefits of physical activity and the National Audit of Inpatient Falls is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/public-health/harnessing-the-benefits-of-physical-activity/

https://www.rcp.ac.uk/improving-care/national-clinical-audits/falls-and-fragility-fracture-audit-programme-fffap/national-audit-of-inpatient-falls-naif/