Walking aid ‘MOT’ clinics trialled to reduce winter falls and hospital admissions

Teams at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals have teamed up to trial a special walking aid ‘MOT’ clinic in care homes across Fylde and Wyre to help prevent falls and keep people mobile.

A third of people aged 65 and over have the highest risk of falling, and around half of people aged 80 and over, fall at least once a year. Those in care homes are three times more likely to fall than those living at home.

Now the Fylde Enhanced Primary care and Fylde and Wyre Falls services at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals have teamed up to help prevent falls, reduce the number of referrals and educate care homes how to maintain and improve their resident’s mobility.

Working closely with care homes, these services are now visiting one care home per month where they assess the needs, mobility and the resident’s current equipment and produce action plans and referrals, without them needing to make self-referrals for help.

In a recent visit, of the 36 residents seen in the MOT clinic 28 people needed action such as further physiotherapy or adjusted mobility aids.

Martin Ryska, Therapy Technical Instructor at Fylde Enhanced Primary Care, worked collaboratively with Marie Allen, Occupational Therapist from the Falls service, to spearhead the initiative and now hopes this trial will reduce future fall related hospital admissions. He explained: “At the MOT sessions we are not just assessing the individual residents but also include a falls prevention education session for the care home teams. Here we advise them on ways to make the environment safer to reduce any falls like securing rugs, keeping residents mobile and making everyday facilities like light switches easily accessible.”

Based on the success of this initiative, other community therapy services across the Fylde Coast are hoping to adopt this model within their areas.

A spokesperson for Brooklands Care Home commented, “It is nice to have a professional team in place to make sure all the residents have the correct equipment and also ensure that any equipment we have will be provided or repaired.”