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As part of the 9th wave in October 2003, the subject of “Fallers’ Clinics” was referred to NICE for a “multiple technology appraisal”.

A draft scope was issued for consultation following the NICE’s normal process in April 2004. The responses to the consultation showed there was no accepted definition of a “faller’s clinic”. Following discussion with the Department of Health, the appraisal was suspended. In addition, a piece of research was commissioned via the NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R&D programme, to undertake a detailed scoping exercise for fallers’ clinics.

The research was conducted by the University of Warwick and is now published. The research shows that fallers’ clinics vary greatly in their organisation, the skills mix of their staff, the procedures used, and how clients are managed. It concludes that the ability to assess this will be constrained by the variability in their organisation and limited outcome data. There is limited information available and therefore the effectiveness of various models cannot be confidently assessed and economic modelling is not recommended.

NICE have published a clinical guideline on ‘The assessment and prevention of falls in older people’ (CG21).

In light of the published research and the existing NICE guidance, the Department of Health have recently advised NICE that Ministers have removed faller’s clinics from the technology appraisal work programme.

BGS Newsletter, March 2009
Issue 20 ISSN 1748-6343 20