Pensioners who suffer falls at home face a postcode lottery in the way they are treated with paramedics given little choice but to take them to hospital in half of Scotland.

More than 30,000 pensioners are being rushed to hospital by ambulance in the country every year after stumbling over and being unable to get up in their homes.

But new figures revealed to The Herald under freedom of information laws show massive disparities exist in the treatment they receive depending on where they live.

In some areas, crews can hail social care services within 40 minutes to assist a frail, elderly person who has tumbled, but not been injured.

Elsewhere they can leave messages on answer machines during anti-social hours prompting social care staff to visit patients within eight hours.

In 13 council areas, no systems have been agreed with the ambulance service and patients face being admitted to hospital.

Drew Wemyss, head of strategy implementation for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “The key thing we are trying to do is facilitate a person who is stable and well to remain at home... In areas where they do not have that (response) the default will be going to hospital.”

Frontline staff had raised concern in the past that they were going back repeatedly to the same people who had tripped and could not get up from the floor, he added.

Their complaints parked a bid to find better solutions for these patients

The Scottish Government has also had a focus on falls since 2010 looking at preventing accidents as well as responding to patients who have fallen.

Out of 31 council regions, 13 have now established some kind of system with the Scottish Ambulance Service which helps keep people who have fallen at home. A further four are testing a system or have carried out a trial. The rest are yet to introduce a service with five places - South Lanarkshire, Dundee, West and East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire said to have “no formal work under way”.

Where so-called “pathways” have been set up between ambulance crews and social services patients can have a rapid assessment of their needs. This may include removing trip hazards, supplying equipment to help them avoid another fall such as a commode or grab rail, reviewing their care package and referring the person to rehabilitation therapies.

However, even where systems are set up access to emergency social care after a fall varies.

Mr Wemyss said: “All these services are at different levels of maturity and indeed availability. You do not get the same availability in Argyll as you do in Glasgow at times.”

Falkirk has a mobile emergency care service which can respond to the most vulnerable within 40 minutes. Edinburgh city and North East Glasgow have a similar deal.

Some areas provide a contact to the SAS around the clock, others default to an answer machine at certain times.

In Fife and five other council areas there is an emergency falls service which can attend patients who have fallen, help them up and instigate the necessary support cutting out the ambulance service completely if the patient is not hurt.

The proportion of elderly patients taken to hospital by the Scottish Ambulance Service has fallen by around 15% since 2012. However, there are calls for falls services to become standard nationwide.

A review of out of hours care commissioned by the Scottish Government and carried out by Sir Lewis Ritchie said: “All localities need an effective falls response service to assist people in a crisis and avoid unnecessary admissions.”

Sir Lewis said progress had been made in increasing falls services since he published the report before Christmas last year, but he added that it was an area where councils should be able to make progress relatively quickly.

Mr Wymss said some areas yet to introduce pathways were waiting to see results from test sites, such as north east Glasgow, but may then be able to adopt the practices relatively quickly.

Ann Murray, national falls programme manager with the Scottish Government, stressed some areas such as Dundee which did not have pathways yet had carried out significant work on preventing falls.

She said: “In addition to the Scottish Ambulance Service, many local community alarm/ telecare services provide an urgent response for people who have fallen and have a community alarm.

“These local authority and housing responders are able to prevent ambulances being called out to people who have fallen and are uninjured.”

She added: “Significant development work is ongoing across the country and plans are evolving for implementation in line with the strategy to test, learn and apply robust pathways for ambulance teams.”