Somerset care home investment to help people who fall

Care home resident Tere Lattanzio sat in one of the new lifting chairs as part of a demonstration.

The NHS is to invest £750,000 on training, kit and community services so care staff can help residents who fall.

Starting from November, 88 of the 213 care homes in Somerset will be given new inflatable lifting chairs.

Somerset's Chief Medical Officer Dr Bernie Marden said: "It's often not the fall itself which causes the problem, it's being left [on the floor]."

Only a handful of homes in Somerset have the chairs, which help get residents upright quickly.

Rolling it out should ease NHS pressure as ambulances will not be required, the NHS says.

Dr Marden said the main complications from a fall are "pressure injury, vulnerability to infection and general deterioration."

At Grovelands Care Home in Yeovil staff said they have had to wait in the past for up to 10 hours for an ambulance to arrive to help with a resident who had fallen over.

Tere Lattanzio, 81, lives in the home. She took part in a demonstration of the new lifting chairs and thinks having them is reassuring.

Ms Lattanzio said: "I have fallen numerous times because I have Parkinson's. I don't feel my feet so it's very difficult for me to stand up and do anything."

The chairs are placed underneath the resident and are then inflated to lift them upwards.

Karen Cheshire is the Business Manager at Grovelands Care Home.

Ms Cheshire said: "We think our residents are going to benefit hugely from the use of this.

"Anyone who falls on the floor will feel demoralised and want to get up from the floor as quickly as possible, and using this particular equipment is a more dignified way of lifting our residents from the floor safely."

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