Falls suffered by elderly cost £4.6m a day

Falls among elderly people cost the NHS more than £4.6m a day, new analysis has found. About 3.4 million people over the age of 65 fall each year in the UK – or almost one in three. Almost half of all falls are among the over-80s, half of whom fall again in the following year.

Falls are a major cause of injury and death among the over-70s and account for over half of hospital admissions for accidental injury. According to research published in the British Medical Journal, this number could be cut dramatically: balance and strength training, adaptations to the home and practice in getting up quickly could cut the rate of falls by 55 per cent.