What are the Consequences of Falls in Hospitals?
Falls in hospital can be pre-empted with a combination of fall prevention strategies, environmental modifications, patient education, and tailored care plans. Despite this, a common claim for clinical negligence is hospital falls. For patients already receiving medical care in hospital, a fall can cause further injury, pain and distress, which can lead to physical injuries, as well as a prolonged stay in hospital and a loss of independence. There may also be psychological consequences, such as a fear of falling.
Hospital falls particularly affect older people and vulnerable patients because they are more likely to fall and suffer more severe consequences as a result. In cases like this, fall risk assessments should have been carried out to prevent injury. When hospitals fail to enact fall prevention strategies, leading to a fall in hospital, patients may be able to claim compensation.
When are Hospital Falls Caused by Medical Negligence?
Hospitals have a duty of care to adhere to patient safety standards and carry out fall risk assessments for their vulnerable patients. As these patients are deemed a higher risk, they should be closely monitored.
This could mean that vulnerable patients require one-to-one care, so they are not left unattended in instances where they are more likely to fall. For example, they should be accompanied to the bathroom, have their bed sides raised at all times and nurses should answer their patients’ call bells for assistance promptly to prevent at-risk patients from trying to get out of bed themselves. If patients are going to be transferred to another setting, a moving and handling risk evaluation should also be carried out.
As well as failure to appropriately carry out fall risk assessments, nursing negligence claims and a failure to follow the rules of the Trust’s fall prevention policy commonly result in hospital fall compensation claims.
What are the Risk Factors for Falls in Hospitals?
Although any person of any age can fall, vulnerable hospital patients, such as older people and those living with certain health conditions, are more at risk due to their instability and frailty.Therefore, there are many risk factors for hospital falls that should be assessed, such as:
- Age
- A history of falling
- Cognitive impairment
- Medical conditions increasing the likelihood of falling, such as Parkinson’s or dementia, muscle weakness, balance/gait problems or hearing loss
- Medication side effects that may impact balance
- Dizziness brought on by medical conditions or medication
- Mobility or instability
- Visual impairment
- Continence issues
- Lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity or excessive alcohol consumption
- Unsuitable or missing footwear due to medical conditions like diabetes
- Environmental factors like wet floors, loose carpets or exposed cables from hospital machinery
Why Should You Make a Hospital Fall Injury Claim?
A hospital is supposed to be a safe space, but due to clinical negligence, there were approximately 250,000 falls in hospitals between 2024 and 2025. Hospital falls can lead to an array of physical and mental injuries that vary in severity. If patients have suffered from mental or physical distress or financial loss due to a fall in hospital, a compensation claim can help them rebuild their lives.
Four factors that determine how much compensation a patient might receive for a hospital fall are:
- Nature and severity of the physical injury sustained, prognosis and duration of recovery
- Emotional trauma experienced
- Non-financial consequences
- Financial consequences
When you enquire about a compensation claim, your medical records will be used to establish whether your fall resulted in physical injury or emotional trauma. Over half of falls among older adults result in an injury, which can range from bruising and grazes to fractures to the hip, pelvis or spine; more serious injuries include skull fractures, severe brain injury or internal injuries, with some fall-related injuries being fatal. If risk factors remain unaddressed and appropriate fall prevention strategies are not carried out, falls can become recurrent.
Your solicitor will help establish any consequences of the fall, such as a loss of independence that impacts your quality of life or costs for past or future care. If you are of working age, you can still claim for being unable to work post-incident, as this results in loss of earnings. Compensation can ensure a patient’s financial position is not impacted by a hospital fall, and can cover any emotional or physical trauma caused by the incident.
Read our case study about an elderly client who had fallen off a commode following an enema because of negligent nurse care. She suffered a fracture to her spine, which was misdiagnosed as an old break until four days after the hospital fall. With our solicitor’s help, she was awarded £60,000 in compensation.
How Can Medical Solicitors Support Your Hospital Fall Compensation Claim?
As specialist medical negligence lawyers in the UK, our experts have extensive experience handling avoidable hospital fall claims. We have also established strong working relationships with leading medical experts who can assess your ongoing needs and provide their professional opinion about your fall.
Medical Solicitors is a Lexcel-accredited law firm, praised for its compliance and case management. We work to make your medical negligence claim as stress-free as possible and have offices across Yorkshire in Sheffield, York and Hull, meaning we are well positioned to help clients across the UK looking to make a medical negligence claim for a hospital fall.
If breach of duty and causation are admitted before a claim settles, we may be able to apply for interim payments, where you receive a proportion of the estimated final compensation early. This can be used to begin private therapies that will aid your recovery. We can also advise on any benefits you may be entitled to and where to find support for this.
We conduct most of our clinical and medical negligence claims under ‘No Win, No Fee’ agreements, also known as Conditional Fee Agreements. So, our clients do not pay anything unless their cases are successful or a settlement is agreed upon. If you have suffered from a fall in hospital and believe you have a claim to make, please don’t hesitate to speak to us today.
Please note: At Medical Solicitors, we specialise in falls in hospital claims involving healthcare providers in England and Wales and will be happy to extend a helping hand if your case is located in either of these regions. Unfortunately, we do not handle claims outside of England and Wales.
