'Hospital needed to stop my mum from falling'

Sally Buckley, 54, feared the worst when her 87-year-old mother suffered a number of falls during a two-week stay in the Princess Elizabeth Hospital at the beginning of the year.

She expressed her concerns two weeks after the Guernsey Press reported there had been 19 serious incidents at the PEH last year, more than half of which involved falls.

Health & Social Care has taken steps recently to minimise falls, including setting up a group that examines the circumstances of every fall and investment in new equipment. Falls are also reported on public ward whiteboards.

Mrs Buckley said there was no space on geriatric wards, so her mother was placed on Victoria Wing, which is usually for private patients.

Talking about the first incident, Mrs Buckley said: 'About three to four days after she was admitted I went in to her room and got there just in time to catch her falling out of her chair.

'She was trying to stand on her own. She had been ringing the bell for a period of time but nobody had come.'

Mrs Buckley managed to get her mother in her chair and staff eventually came to help her get in bed.

'It was a shock, she was there about to fall, but at the time I thought it was a one-off.'

But two days later Mrs Buckley said she soon learnt that was not the case and she found her mother doing the same thing.

During her time in hospital, Mrs Buckley said her mother was 'black and blue' with bruises.