The new role preventing patient falls during hospital stays

A new role is supporting NHS staff and patients to prevent fall injuries during hospital stays and reduce hospital re-admissions.

30-year-old D’Arcie Hall, from Billingham, was appointed falls educator at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust in February 2025. A brand new position in the trust, her role looks to educate staff and hospital inpatients about preventing falls to ultimately reduce the number of incidents and re-admissions due to fall injuries.

With a background in occupational therapy, D’Arcie has worked in the trust’s orthogeriatric ward for the past three years. Her previous role as senior occupational therapist saw D’Arcie supporting and caring for elderly patients with fractures – many of which were caused by falls.

Her experiences sparked a particular interest in falls prevention and support. Now in her new role, she looks for trends and themes in incidents to identify areas for additional staff training in falls prevention.

D’Arcie said: “Falls are a very highly-reported incident within the trust and with an ageing population in our communities, we’re seeing an increase in admissions due to falls-related injuries as well.

“Falls aren’t always necessarily avoidable and there’s so many factors that contribute – from dementia and delirium to our muscles deconditioning as we age. We know falls are going to happen, but our aim is to make sure all staff supporting elderly patients have as much knowledge and awareness as possible to minimise incidents and the severity of the injuries they cause.”

The aftermath of falls

According to NHS England, 30% of people aged 65 and above will experience an episode of a fall at least once a year.

Injuries from falls can be very serious, such as broken hips (known as neck of femur fractures) which can take several weeks or months to recover. Around one in 20 older people experience a fracture or need hospitalisation after a fall – accounting for over four million hospital bed days per year in England alone.

While D’Arcie’s new role will focus on staff awareness and education, she can also offer one-to-one advice and support to patients who are at high risk of falls, as well as their families, to prevent re-admission to hospital.

D’Arcie continued: “Falls do put a big pressure on the NHS – whether it’s falls-related admissions or falls in hospital. But there’s also a real personal cost to our patients as well because the injuries can have devastating consequences.

“I’m getting out on wards to support and train clinical staff. But I’ll also be giving advice and guidance to our inpatients who might be at risk as well. My hope is that by giving this additional support, we’ll see not just a reduction in falls during patients’ hospital stays, but after they leave as well to prevent re-admission.”