Abstract
Introduction: Would you drive a car with a worn tyre? Then why use a walking aid with a worn ferrule? Walking aids are essential tools for supporting and maintaining an individual’s independence, function, and safety. They provide greater stability and balance, promote a safe gait pattern by improving speed and stride evenness, and enhance confidence in mobility. However, it is well known walking aids that are incorrectly fitted or equipped with a worn ferrule can increase the risk of injury and or falls and their associated complications, but there is no evidence to suggest worn out ferrules is associated with increased risk of falls.
Method: To promote awareness, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) campaigned #WalkingAidMOTWeek (11th–24th November 2024), a cross-site initiative encouraging routine walking aid checks as part of the Eat Drink Dress Move campaign. Therapy teams led inspections across ward settings and outpatient areas, replacing ferrules where possible.
Results: At Solihull Hospital (SHH), 79 aids were checked, with 23 (29%) requiring replacement. At Good Hope Hospital (GHH), 438 walking aids were assessed across all settings, with 97 (22%) needing new ferrules. Data collection at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE) was approximate, and no numerical data was available for Birmingham Heartlands Hospital (BHH). A total of £730.28 was raised for the GHH charity, with £318.28 allocated specifically for EDDM resources. Financially, £35.69 was spent on 97 replacement ferrules at GHH, a cost significantly lower than that of replacing the walking aid entirely or a fall-related hospital admission.
Conclusion: While further research is needed to establish a definitive link between worn ferrules and fall risk, this campaign successfully raised awareness about walking aid maintenance and individual safety. The initiative demonstrated its potential as a sustainable and scalable strategy for improving patient care, reducing healthcare costs, and supporting environmental sustainability.
Comments
Thank you for your poster,…
Thank you for your poster, what is your suggestion on how to implement this on a more consistent basis with the current pressures on staffing capacity and demand?
Reply to Samdavidolden_27620
Its not been easy, the MOT week as an awareness campaign is staying in its week. And sustainability has grown into a massive project on its own- up take on support with this to help clean items down etc is based on personal interest in being green. i set aside an hour a week to clean down and asses equipment and take it back up to the wards.
This week with it being falls week we launched a campaign about ensuring all wards have the right amount of frames/s mobility equipment for patients that need them, to promote safer mobility by ensuring everyone has their own frame in reach and its identified as theirs to reduce IPC and sharing of mobility aids. So is there a way to tie it into that. Having the right frame or aid at the right height and labelled for the right patient, but also enticing int he safety check of ferrules etc on ward settings.
Then outpatients/ community settings- its not too difficult to check someone's walking aid, i appreciate time is a resource but when that patient comes to a GP or nurse appt or any appt can the practitioner do a quick check and replace the ferrule if its worn down. the cost of a ferrule for us is 35-38p. the cost of a fall because the aid gave way or slipped is significantly higher. and it takes a minute to swap the ferrule over.
i have taken on pretty much all things mobility aids now as part of my job as a reconditioning clinical specialist, so i am lucky i have a bit more of a luxury of controlling my own diary to meet the needs of a project. but for those working direct patient facing, especially in likes of A&E - does it fall part of your history gathering/ assessment if a therapist or falls practitioner.
Question
This is such a great project. Were the ferrules or aids bought by the trust via procurement or supplied by an equipment provider.
Reply to Angharad__anna
Hi, the ferrules have been purchased through a 3rd party- therapy staff order equipment for home via medequip - they offer replacement ferrules at varied sizes at 35-38p each. i found them on NHS Supply chain and they were almost triple that price, starting at £1. Only issue i have had is trying to dispose of them - they have metal in the middle of the rubber so its been tough to try and recycle them.
An interesting poster.
Thank you, I found this poster really interesting. During this falls awareness week, we have had a stand at the main entrance of our hospital. We made sure we had spare ferrules and found that a good way of engaging with the public was to offer a walking stick/crutch/frame ferrule check. We were lucky to have the Physio team supporting us in this. I learnt a lot about ferrules, and some of them were truly not fit for purpose with tape and superglue used for repair in some cases! It's such a quick fix but so many of the people we spoke to had no idea that the ferrule could even be changed and equally how they could get it changed once they knew what to check for. If it could be shown that this simple equipment check could make a difference- perhaps a "Check your Ferrule" campaign is needed and information on where and when this can be done. After all, it is often the simple things that make a difference.
reply to l.walker39@nhs.net
Yeah thats what we have done too. Really simple and effective check - takes less than a minute (some ferrules were tough to remove!!) we had chocolates to give out and alsoa little business card that we encouraged people to stick on their fridge reminding them to make it a monthly check.