A coroner has expressed concern after a 75-year-old man died after a fall at Ipswich Hospital.

Michael Burke died on February 2 last year, after suffering a fall while staying in a ward earlier in the week.

Mr Burke was first admitted to Ipswich Hospital in December 2022 with a suspected chest infection, having lived with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) since 2008.

Tests showed he was suffering from community acquired pneumonia and a fractured vertebra.

Mr Burke was deemed fit for discharge on January 25 but returned to hospital by ambulance the next day after being found collapsed on the bathroom floor at his care home by staff.

On January 30, Mr Burke fell whilst trying to get out bed, and suffered a fractured neck of femur.

Mr Burke continued to deteriorate until his death on February 2.

The coroner who presided over Mr Burke’s inquest, Darren Stewart OBE, has now written to hospital chiefs to express his concerns.

In a prevention of future deaths report addressed to Nick Hulme, chief executive for East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), Mr Stewart said that “limited and inadequate measures had been put in place to mitigate [Mr Burke’s] falls risk and no falls assessment had been undertaken”.

He found that the fall Mr Burke suffered on the ward made a “material contribution” to his death.

During the course of the inquest, he heard that Mr Burke had not been risk assessed when he was moved to a new ward on January 30.

“I am concerned that Ipswich Hospital has inadequate arrangements in place to both highlight circumstances where the requirement for risk assessments have not been completed and in the arrangements for the handover of tasks (particularly falls assessments) between shifts,” coroner Steward wrote.