Our Client was admitted as a resident to a nursing home after suffering frequent falls at their family home and following a diagnosis of dementia.

The Deceased was known to be a ‘’high’’ falls risk by the staff at the home, but was only assessed as being at “Medium” risk of falls.

It was known when the deceased was admitted to the Home that they were at risk of falls as the initial admission care plan noted this, however, a falls risk assessment was not completed for some 11 months after admission.

Also, the initial care plan was substandard in that the instructions for staff given in the initial care plan were vague and non-specific, such as ‘needs supervision and is prone to falls’’, there were no instructions to staff to utilise a care plan or any tools to mitigate the risk of falls.

The standard of the care planning in relation to falls prevention fell below that expected of any reasonable and responsible body of nursing home staff.

The Deceased suffered an unobserved fall at the Home and was transferred by emergency ambulance to hospital with a fractured hip, they developed hypoactive delirium due to the shock of the fall and sadly, they passed away without leaving hospital some weeks later.