A NEW scheme to reduce the number of old people falling over in hospital has been hailed a success.

Colchester General Hospital said the number of falls each month had halved on a ward for the elderly since a pilot project started.

The average number of falls each month on Birch Ward is now 12 a month, compared to 24 previously.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester General and Essex County hospitals, started the trial, which involves checking on frail patients every two hours, after falls on its wards reached 144 in May and 125 in June last year.

The trust’s target is to have no more than 96 a month.

The hospital was among the first in the UK to trial the method, which is widely-used in America. The scheme, known as patient rounding, has now been extended to a second care of the elderly ward and there are plans to roll it out across the trust.

Kathy French, the trust’s deputy director of nursing, patient safety and patient experience, said: “It has been welcomed by the patients because it increases the amount of direct contact they have with the people looking after them.

“Clearly, it is not rocket science but we have already proven that it pays dividends to get into the culture and discipline of checking on patients at least every two hours and it significantly helps with their recovery.”

An NHS ombudsman’s report into the care of the elderly published this week found even the most basic practices, such as feeding, watering and washing, were not carried out in some hospitals.

Mrs French said the scheme was about getting the basics right.

She said as many as 90 per cent of patient falls happened when they attempted to go to the toilet.

Patients who regularly failed to get enough to drink were more likely to feel faint and therefore fall, which is why under the new scheme, nurses check regularly to see if they are thirsty.