Margaret Burman

“falls in the hospital environment do happen, however, I was of the view in Avril's case that had there been an appropriate Healthcare Assistant present then Avril's fall and death more likely than not would have been avoided.”

“the elderly on hospital wards are at significant risk of sustaining a traumatic and fatal injury by having a fall on a ward due to the unavailability of appropriate and necessary falls mitigation measures”

“there should be national leadership and a standardised toolkit when assessing falls risks on hospital wards and that there should also be a greater degree sharing of learning where methods of good practice have been adopted by other Trusts that could easily be adopted by Trusts where this is a challenge”