Southend Hospital bosses say staff shortages not to blame as it is revealed three patients per day suffer falls on the wards

Eighty patients fell in July, then there were a further 97 falls in August, according to the latest trust board papers.

During the same period, a Basildon Hospital said there were no falls which had resulted in injuries.

The falls in July all occurred on the hospital’s stroke unit. One patient suffered a cerebral bleed, which the hospital didn’t attribute to the fall, but another patient suffered a head injury as a result of theirs.

On Eleanor Hobbs ward that month a patient was found lying on the floor with a broken hip.

Two falls in August on Kitty Hubbard and Princess Anne wards left patients with fractures.

The hospital is suffering from staff shortages and the board papers show vacancies increased in July to 18 per cent from 14 per cent in June.

Then in August this reduced slightly to 17 per cent.

Yvonne Blücher, chief nurse at Southend Hospital, was adamant staff shortages had nothing to do with the falls.

She said: “We take any patient falls extremely seriously and an investigation, or root cause analysis, is taken out for every fall at the hospital.

“After investigation, none of the moderate severity or high severity falls during July and August are linked to staffing deficit.”

Mary Foulkes, director of organisational development and HR at the hospital, added: “There continues to be a shortage of nurses and we face the same recruitment obstacles as other hospitals across the country. The Trust’s recruitment plan continues apace with a successful recruitment day held at the hospital earlier this month, with another scheduled for Saturday, November 19. “