Fire Service support schemes for patients who need assistance to return home from hospital or after a fall are to be extended after thousands of callouts across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

The Falls Response Service, which aims to cut ambulance waits and hospital stays by responding to residents who have fallen but not suffered any injuries, has attended more than 2,300 calls since it went live in December 2022.

The Home from Hospital service, which was launched in December 2023 to assist the NHS in discharging patients from Royal Stoke University Hospital during the busy winter period, has been used more than 2,600 times, a report to the latest Fire and Rescue Service public performance meeting revealed.

During that time just one patient was readmitted to hospital within 24 hours of being discharged.

Chief Fire Officer Rob Barber, speaking at the meeting said the partnership with health services was going from strength to strength. He added: "We've talked many times about the benefits of both of these provisions.

"They were both three-month pilots a number of years ago and we've just received further information that they are going to be extended, which is really positive.

"Home from Hospital goes through to March next year and the Falls Response Team through to December this year, but we're expecting further funding coming from our health partners.

"I know, speaking with health colleagues, they're really pleased with the provision. The discharge and settle-in provision we're doing through Home from Hospital has expanded massively."

The Fire Service team took on new responsibilities in July 2024 to help patients settle in more smoothly at home once discharged from hospital. The team is now completed between six and seven jobs a day on average, the report said.

It added: "In February the team received the Chief Executive Award from University of North Midland NHS Trust to recognise how successful and impactful this patient safety initiative is. SFRS is the first external partner to ever receive this award."

Mr Barber said: "We've now fitted 513 key safes and we've completed 103 furniture movements.

"That means that people who couldn't be discharged previously because of inappropriate layouts in the home can now go back to their home environment and they're not staying and blocking a hospital bed.

"We've also completed 13 property inspections as well, to make sure grab rails and things like that are fitted and vulnerable members of the community can go and live independently in their own homes.

"Some of the little things that we knew we could do have a massive effect – if somebody can't be returned to their home environment because carers can't access the premises because there's no key safe, it's a five minute job for us to fit a key safe.

"Or if the layout of the downstairs isn't appropriate and they couldn't get the bed in the right place, or there was furniture in the way, we could do that really quickly

"The knock-on-effect has a huge impact and benefit to the whole system. It's not just a fire service benefit, it's a system-wide impact, and it's far more than a financial benefit to the organisation – it means we're putting the patient at the centre of everything we do."

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams said: "This is more than supporting the ambulance service in transport. It's actually going way beyond, getting the environment ready for the individual coming back from hospital.

"The numbers that are then returning to hospital are greatly reduced, which means the beds are free. It's a huge impact on public health."