Bingara Multi Purpose Service Hospital wins Hunter New England Health award for putting prevention before cure

Bingara MPS health service manager Sue Mack said the joint hospital, primary health and age care provider realised they were in a unique position to prevent, rather than cure, a health problem.

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"Bingara has a community with a population where about 40 per cent of it is over 65 years old, compared to the state, which is about 16.2 per cent," she said.

"We were having increasing community falls present to the emergency department, probably one every eight days. Most of them did not result in a huge injury, but others did. And we thought, 'what could we do in the community that could improve these people's strength and their balance that would prevent them falling?'."

Research showed the best plan was some kind of water-based exercise for the town's most-vulnerable people.

In targeting people who had already had a fall, or who were considered at high risk of a fall, the aqua-aerobics program quickly became a huge success.

It was supposed to be a 12-week program at the Bingara Pool, but even after just six weeks, not one participant has had a fall since, she said.

The program has won them a gong from Hunter New England Local Health District, an excellence award in the keeping people healthy category.

But it's changed lives as well.

"[A fall] can change their lives. Depending on the injury, if you have a hip fracture, you can go on to have surgery, you can then go on to have complications, you can have rehab. What we see is a lot of people are never the same again, never get back to their pre-fall functioning," she said.

"So it can be devastating on an older person to have a fall."

The Bingara MPS is preparing for summer to roll out another full scale 'Breaking the Drought - Using Water to Prevent Falls in Rural Communities' program, but a small group of participants took part in a winter version at the Barraba hydrotherapy pool.

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