FOI 25-111 Falls Aged 65 and over conveyed to hospital
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-111 Falls Aged 65 and over conveyed to hospital
- Request Date
- 05 Mar 2025
- Response Date
- 01 Apr 2025
- Information Requested
I am writing to request detailed information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding ambulance drop-offs of elderly patients at A&E following falls over the two-year period from January 2023 to December 2024. I am specifically requesting data held by the A&E department related to ambulance arrivals, not ambulance service transportation data.
For each of the following data points, please provide a monthly breakdown for the years 2023 and 2024 (January 2023 - December 2024):
1. Total number of ambulance drop-offs of elderly patients following falls.
1a. Breakdown of incidents by location type as reported by the ambulance crew upon arrival (e.g., private residence, care home, public place).
2. If possible, please specify, as reported by the ambulance crew upon arrival:
2a. Specific address if a private residence (without personally identifiable details).
Name of the care home if applicable.
Name of the public place (e.g., "Morrisons Supermarket, [Location]").
If the location is unknown, please indicate "Location Unknown."
Breakdown of dropped-off patients by age brackets (e.g., 65-74, 75-84, 85+).
3. Breakdown of dropped-off patients by gender.
4. Total number of elderly fall-related ambulance drop-offs at each hospital within the trust/service area.
5. Breakdown of the number of patients who have been dropped off by ambulance multiple times within the two-year period due to falls.
6. Breakdown the days of the week when fall-related ambulance drop-offs occur.
7. Any available data recorded by the A&E department on time of ambulance arrival at the hospital for fall-related incidents. This is not a request for ambulance service response times.
8. I request that this data be provided in Excel format if possible.- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service cannot provide any information that may be held in an A&E Department. We cannot produce information on location types (private residence, care home, supermarket etc), patient genders, the number of times a single patient has been conveyed to A&E following a fall, days of the week or ambulance arrival time without applying complex skill and judgement to each fall incident attended by the Scottish Ambulance Service.
It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
Please see the attached sheet detailing the number of patients conveyed to hospital aged 65 and over with the chief complaint 17: Fall and over from 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2024.
The second table is the total number of patients conveyed to hospital with the chief complaint 17: Falls over the age of 65 broken down by gender. It is important to note, the gender field is not a compulsory field for ambulance staff to complete.
The second tab details the number of conveyances for Chief Complaint Falls from 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2024 broken down by hour of day. It is important to note, this information is inclusive of ALL ages.
- Response Documents
