MORE THAN 700 falls have been recorded at the new £430m Southmead hospital in its first three months since opening.

A report in the hospital’s board papers also revealed that 14 of them have resulted in serious injuries – an increase from the six recorded in the same period last year.

A line in the report says that two patients have subsequently died but it is not confirmed whether or not this was attributable to the fall.

In June, July and August, 701 falls were recorded – an increase of 19 per cent from the same period the year before.

As a result of the falls nine hip fractures, three femoral fractures and three intracranial haemorrhages (bleeding inside the skull), amongst other serious injuries, have been recorded.

This is the latest issue in a long line of problems at Southmead Hospital since its opening earlier this year – including a lack of parking at the site and dozens of operation cancellations.

Director of nursing and quality at NBT, Sue Jones, said: “We anticipated that there might be a rise in falls upon the transfer to the new hospital.

“To prepare for this we have been developing our practice in recent years and improving our falls rate. Prior to the move, this work had brought our rate of falls causing serious harm to below the national average.

“When there is an incident we review every case for the root cause and any new learning is immediately put in to practice.

“There are patients who come into hospital who are at particular risk of falls, such as those with dementia and people who are frail and elderly. A risk assessment is carried out when patients are admitted to ensure the right level of care is provided to reduce the risk of falling.

“For high risk patients this includes the use of one-to-one care. All patients are observed and assessed on an hourly basis and nursing staff base themselves in the corridors outside groups of rooms. There is an open door policy so that patients can be seen inside their rooms.

“We take this matter very seriously and are working on further improvements to our practice.”

In June the rate of falls at Southmead was more than eight per 1,000 bed days but has since dropped to about six.