News Archive
- May 2012 (6)
- April 2012 (6)
- March 2012 (9)
- February 2012 (3)
- January 2012 (7)
- December 2011 (2)
- November 2011 (4)
- October 2011 (4)
- September 2011 (6)
- August 2011 (8)
- July 2011 (8)
- June 2011 (10)
Latest news
A government review into the PIP breast implant scandal has said that both the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Department of Health acted appropriately at the time of the health scare, though it warned that decisive action would be needed to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The implants, which were banned in France in 2010, were found to contain industrial grade silicone gel rather than medical grade and this increased the chance of them rupturing. Though the French government recommended their removal, the MHRA said this was not necessary as they did not find any evidence of health issues or an increase in rupture rates.
The differing advice led to panic amongst the thousands of British women who had the implants and the health minister...
16/05/2012
Leeds General Infirmary, fiercely criticised by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year, has made significant improvements according to the health watchdog’s latest inspection.
The hospital received an official warning following an inspection in February which demanded immediate action. The CQC criticised care standards and reported major concerns about the way care and staff numbers were recorded. On one occasion CQC inspectors themselves had to call for nurses to come to a patient’s aid, while they also witnessed another patient asking staff not to treat him roughly and others resorting to banging on tables to attract attention.
Maggie Boyle, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said that she had been horrified by the CQC report which had...
15/05/2012
An American study has revealed the dangers apparent when young drivers are behind the wheel with other teenagers in the car with them. The study, by the AAA Safety Foundation focused on those drivers aged 16 and 17 and found that the risk of death per mile driven increased by 44% when carrying a passenger aged below 21 and with no one older in the car with them. However, if there is a person over the age of 35 also in the vehicle, the risk decreases by 62%
In the USA state driving laws changed in the 1990s and “graduated licencing” laws are in place which often restrict young drivers from having passengers of a similar age in the car with them and restrict driving at night time. In the States the number of drivers aged 16 and 17 who died in road accidents fell by more...
11/05/2012
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which was set up by the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, has contradicted the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission, by arguing that funding for the care of the elderly should be aimed primarily at those who can least afford it.
Ministers are currently considering the Dilnot proposals, which recommend that the threshold of savings and assets should be raised from the present figure of £23,250 to £100,000 and that a limit of £35,000 should be set as to the amount that any one individual should have to pay for their care during their lifetime.
Ministers are due to hold cross-party talks before publishing a white paper which will set out their proposals. However, Transforming Social Care, the new report from the...
10/05/2012
A young mother has been left in a coma-like state for the rest of her life following a hospital error which led to her being administered with a drug 32 times the normal dose.
Nicola Crelling was given the lethal dose of misoprostol to induce labour after being told by staff at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, that her fourth child had died in her womb. However, hours after being given the drug, which is designed for treating ulcers, Mrs Crelling suffered a ruptured uterus and a heart attack as fluid flooded her brain, starving it of oxygen. She was left unable to walk or talk and will need full-time care for the rest of her life.
Interim damages of £750,000 have been awarded to her family after North Northumbria Hospitals NHS trust admitted that it had been medically...
08/05/2012
The police have issued a formal warning to the owners of a Leeds care home for failing to ensure the safety of residents after finding mistakes in controlled drug records.
Police carried out an investigation into the Claremont Care Home in Farsley following an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which looked at whether medication was being properly administered. They found that signatures were missing in some cases and there were further concerns over the controlled drug register, with only one nurse signing for the destroyal of three ampoules of Diamorphine Hydrochloride, although Nursing and Midwifery Council guidelines state that two nurses must sign.
Park Homes UK Limited, which owns the care home, said that the CQC warning related to historic issues which had...
02/05/2012
Barclays has announced better than expected quarterly profits, though they have been affected by the news that the bank has also announced an additional £300m to cover the cost of the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal.
The bank reported a 22% increase in pre-tax profits to £2.4bn, whereas the city’s expectations were at around the £2bn mark. However, the figures could have been even better had it not been for a recent increase in the number of PPI claims, which have affected the profits of its UK arm in particular. So far Barclays has set aside £1.3bn to cover PPI compensation to pay back to customers affected.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-takes-300m-hit-on-missold-ppi-claims-7681080.html
27/04/2012
Leeds Teaching Hospitals bosses have issued an apology to the family of a woman who suffered two falls on hospital wards which they were not informed about.
Elsie Bellaby, who is aged 88, was admitted to ward 26 at St James’s Hospital, a medical assessment unit and had two falls while she was in the hospital’s care of which her family was not notified until later in her stay. Her son, Stephen, also said that on a visit to see her, she was foaming at the mouth and incoherent but when he called for help nobody came to attend to her.
The trust’s divisional general manager, Philip Norman, said that it was clear that the care provided to Mrs Bellaby was not acceptable and was deeply regrettable. Though the hospital is to investigate the complaints made, her son says he...
25/04/2012
A highly critical report by the health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed that elderly patients are repeatedly being let down by staff failings at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI).
Inspectors from the CQC have issued new checks following formal warnings which were issued at the hospital last month as a result of repeated failings. Most of the patients on one ward said that they were not satisfied with their care and blamed this on staff shortages. Inspectors said that they were forced to intervene to help patients on the ward who were saying that nurses were ignoring their requests for help.
Recorded incidents on ward 53, which was for orthopaedic patients, included patients having to wait up to 30 minutes to be taken to the toilet, which had led to some soiling their...
20/04/2012
Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, has vowed to find out exactly why so many people are being sent home from NHS hospitals in the middle of the night.
He made the pledge after freedom of information requests were made to all 170 NHS hospital trusts throughout the country. 100 trusts replied and the findings revealed that 239,233 patients had been sent home between the hours of 11pm and 6am during the last year alone. Throughout the country, the figure is likely to be closer to 400,000 patients a year and there is a concern that it is being done in an effort to free up hospital beds. The figures also revealed a disparity between trusts with Derby sending home 8.7% of its patients during these hours whereas Newcastle Hospitals had a rate of below 1%.
Keogh said that he...
16/04/2012
Official figures confirm that the NHS has set aside a total of £235.4m to pay compensation to those affected by errors which have led to some babies being left with brain damage.
The figures, which come from the NHS Litigation Authority, show that there are 60 claims ongoing in which staff had allegedly failed to spot that the new-born babies they were caring for had dangerously low blood sugar levels. In the past decade, in England alone, there have been 79 claims alleging harm to babies related to undetected or untreated hypoglycaemia, which affects roughly one to three of every 1,000 babies and which, if not treated, can have serious consequences.
The £235.4m set aside is intended to cover damages and legal fees but the figure is likely to rise further still due to annual...
11/04/2012
Research from the Medical Defence Union (MDU) has shown widespread delays and, in some cases total failure, to diagnose ovarian cancer.
The MDU, which represents doctors who are accused of negligence, looked into 209 complaints made against doctors between 2002 and last year which involved the disease and in 84% of cases there had been a delay in diagnosis alleged. Those 209 complaints resulted in 71 claims against doctors and eight of these have been settled with compensation payouts ranging from £9,000 to £550,000.
Dr Rachel Sutcliffe, an MDU medico-legal advisor, said that in many cases the patient had eventually died as a result of ovarian cancer. The disease affects 6,500 women in the UK every year with over 4,000 dying and early diagnosis is critical to a woman’s...
04/04/2012
A committee of MPs has heavily criticised regulators and private cosmetic clinics for the time they took to warn clients that their PIP breast implants were of a poor standard.
The Commons health select committee said that about 40,000 women in the UK have the controversial implants and had to wait almost two years before they found out that they contained industrial grade silicone, which was intended for mattresses. They felt that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should have done more than simply notify the clinics, who often failed to pass on the information to their clients.
The committee is also calling for women to be allowed to have the NHS remove their PIP implants and then give them replacements in one operation which, they say, would be more...
30/03/2012
A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has highlighted the care of elderly dementia patients in care homes and hospitals who are allegedly being mistreated by staff who regularly use restraint techniques without permission.
The report states that staff who care for those with dementia often disobey official guidelines and use restraint techniques which include locking patients in their rooms to make it “easier” to manage their behaviour.
The CQC report comes out at the same time as a warning from charity and NHS bosses, that hospitals have become “distressing, disempowering and dehumanising” places for the elderly. It also coincides with the health thinktank, the King’s Fund’s own report which contains damning criticism of the way some elderly...
28/03/2012
The Gilberd School in Colchester has beenfined after a pupil suffered serious injuriesto his ankle and foot when timber boards fell on him.
The 15-year-old pupil, who has not been named, disturbed a pile of timber board which had been stored in the school’s technology department and this caused the pile to fall to the floor, knocking the child down and trapping his foot. He suffered a complicated fracture to his left ankle and foot which may result in permanent damage.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the school, arguing that it had not evaluated the risk of having a heavy pile of wood stacked up in that area and had therefore failed to protect the health and safety of its students. At Colchester Magistrates’ Court the school pleaded guilty to a...
23/03/2012
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which represents 400,000 nurses, is claiming that elderly patients are being badly treated by the NHS due to a shortage of nurses.
A RCN survey of 1,700 nurses found that staff shortages were affecting wards for the elderly in particular which has led to patients failing to receive help in eating and walking. The survey showed that 78% of those questioned said that they did not spend time comforting or talking to patients while 59% claimed that they did not give patients help with their mobility.
Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN, said the figures highlighted the need for a guaranteed minimum number of nurses on wards. He said that patients on elderly wards were being let down by systemic failings as “safe staffing levels and mandatory...
21/03/2012
Just a fortnight after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) called for more regular checks for people who have had metal-on-metal hip implants, experts have gone further and called for them to be banned.
Research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal, found higher than normal failure rates for metal implants which also needed revising more often. Metal-on-metal implants had a five-year revision rate of 6.2% which compared to 2.3% for ceramic-on-ceramic implants and 1.7% for metal-on-plastic. The research also found higher failure rates amongst women in particular.
The experts added: “Metal-on-metal stemmed articulations give poor implant survival compared with other options and should not be implanted.” They said that while they...
19/03/2012
New figures, from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts) have revealed that there are far more elderly drivers on the roads nowadays, although accidents involving them haven’t fallen in line with other age groups.
While there were only 15% of those aged over 70 who held a driving licence in 1975, that had grown to almost 60% by 2010 and rises to 80% of those aged between 60 and 69. However, though the overall number of deaths and serious injuries between 2000 and 2010 had fallen by 41%, the drop amongst those aged 60 to 69 was 37% and for those aged over 80 it had fallen by just 33%.
The Pacts report stressed that, with the figures in mind, it was important that planning decisions were “health-checked” for the elderly and that GPs were more...
12/03/2012
The four daughters of business tycoon Christopher Swain, who died during an operation on his heart, are to sue his solicitors for negligence. They claim that the solicitors’ incompetence left them with an inheritance tax bill of £1m and that they also lost out on £200,000 capital gains tax relief.
Swain, a photographic supplies entrepreneur, died a short time after a management buyout of his business and therefore his children had to pay the bills on the sale of his shares, whereas, if he had kept the shares, they would have been protected by business property relief.
A legal team acting for the four women say that solicitors from Mills & Reeve should have advised Swain to delay the sale of the shares until after his operation. This was rejected in the High...
09/03/2012
Hospital officials have issued an apology after a patient was accidentally set on fire during surgery.
The accident happened at Scarborough Hospital last week when the patient, who has not been named, had a procedure where solution is used to clean the skin; this solution ignited and the patient suffered burns. He was treated for the injury and was transferred to Castle Hill Hospital near Hull and Pinderfields for further assessment before returning to Scarborough.
Liz Booth, director of operations at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, said that the hospital was extremely sorry for the pain and distress caused. She said that a full investigation into the incident has already taken place and a final report will be produced and will be shared with the family.
http://www.bbc.co....
07/03/2012
New guidance has been issued for people with all-metal hip replacements amid fears that they could be poisoned by metal coming off the joint.
The recommendations come from the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) and were issued hours before the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an investigation into the implants together with BBC’s Newsnight, which alleges that thousands of people worldwide, and 50,000 in the UK alone, are in danger through having dangerously high levels of metal in their bodies because they have had the metal-on-metal implants.
One type in particular, the DePuy ASR, has been banned by the MHRA because it was seen to be causing problems and appeared to need replacing sooner than other implants. Concerns about the implants first appeared in...
02/03/2012
A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel has heard details of an incident in which two babies had been switched in a hospital with one of the baby’s having been breast fed by the “wrong” mother, while a midwife had been trying to persuade a student to keep quiet about the mistake.
The incident occurred at Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, Nottinghamshire in November 2007 and the panel heard that both babies were taken away while their mothers rested. However, staff later delivered the wrong babies to the respective mothers.
David Clarke, for the NMC, said that once the error was realised, the babies were returned to their natural mothers but in the meantime the registrar had told one of the mothers that her baby had not been fed in that time period without checking...
29/02/2012
A grieving family have had a medical negligence claim against an NHS trust settled following the death of their baby which, they insist, would have been avoided had he been born during the day rather than at night.
Sarah Wallace, from Scarborough, said that she had been told by staff on duty at Scarborough District Hospital that there were staff shortages at the time her baby Harry was born. He was delivered eight weeks early, by emergency Caesarean section, in September 2009 but was immediately transferred to the special care baby unit and died the following morning from breathing difficulties.
Sarah and her husband Scott say that their loss was aggravated by the hospital not providing straight answers to enquiries the couple had. They say that they had not even been made aware that his...
16/02/2012
The health secretary Andrew Lansley has become more isolated on NHS reform following criticism by two leading doctors who had previously been prominent backers of the government’s plans.
Dr Charles Alessi and Dr Michael Dixon, influential figures in the NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care have been notable for their support for the controversial reforms during the last 18 months, but are now claiming that, rather than liberating doctors, Lansley’s proposals will “suffocate” them.
Primary care trusts and strategic health authorities are set to be scrapped next year with GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCG) set up in their place. However, the two doctors say that these new consortiums will not have the freedom that they were expected to...
09/02/2012
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is to launch an inquiry into concerns that thousands of British patients may have been poisoned by their metal hip replacements.
An investigation by a Sunday newspaper revealed that 30,000 people in this country have had the implants which can cause problems when friction between the metal ball and cup leads to tiny fragments falling off which could seep into the bone. They can also potentially cause soft tissue reaction which can harm muscle and bone.
The MHRA, which is the watchdog responsible for making sure that medicines and medical devices work safely, warned healthcare professionals about the safety of metal implants in April 2010 following concerns that some patients were having soft tissue reactions to “metal-on...
31/01/2012
Figures have just been published for the annual Christmas and New Year crackdown on drink and drug drivers and they reveal that over 7,100 drivers were arrested.
The campaign took place in the month between 1 December and 1 January and involved officers from 43 forces in England and Wales, with intelligence led testing being used for the first time. Almost 157,000 drivers were stopped and tested and more than 7,100 were found to be under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. There was a higher rate of offending among those under the age of 25, 5.7% compared to the 4% rate of those over that age, while the figures also showed, perhaps not surprisingly, that those under the influence were more likely to be involved in a road traffic collision.
Deputy chief constable Suzette...
24/01/2012
Following on from the governments planned change to increase the motorway speed limit. New research published in the British Medical Journal has highlighted questions over the wisdom of the government’s proposed raising of the speed limit on motorways.
The Department for Transport is looking to increase the limit from 70 to 80mph on motorways from next year, claiming that, with Britain having one of the lowest rates of road deaths in the world, the move would provide economic benefits.
However the research, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says that economic benefits will be negligible as the new limit would not cover heavy goods vehicles. However, their main concern is on safety grounds and they point to research conducted in the US which shows that...
17/01/2012
Recent cases have highlighted the potential dangers of using hair dyes and the matter is due to come before MPs just prior to them adjourning for their Christmas holidays with two parliamentary questions being tabled which are due to come before the House of Commons on Monday, calling for a chemical, often used in hair dyes, to be banned.
The case of Julie McCabe from Yorkshire made the headlines during 2011 as she was left in a coma, on a life support machine, where she remains, after colouring her hair with a home dye kit as she had done regularly in the past. Her family are convinced that she had a severe allergic reaction to the chemical p-Phenylenediamine, which has been named the allergen of the year by the American Contact Dermatitis Society.
Chloe Robins is another whose life has...
17/01/2012
Nuffield Health healthcare company has announced that it is to pay for the investigation and surgery costs of all of its 150 patients who have been affected by the PIP breast implant scandal.
The company has said that it will pay the costs of those women who need to have their breast implants removed following concerns over the poor standard of silicone used in them. The implants were made by Poly Implant Prothese, a French firm which has since closed down.
The scandal is thought to have affected 650,000 women in total, of which 42,000 are in the UK. The PIP implants were taken off the market in Europe and South America because of concerns that the implants were rupturing and leaking silicone into the body and fears have grown, since the turn of the year, with news that eight...
09/01/2012
The Labour Party has called on the government to give a clearer lead to the 40,000 women in the UK who are thought to have been affected by the scandal over faulty PIP breast implants.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, says that a plan should be worked out by ministers together with representatives from the private cosmetic surgery industry, on what can be done for women in this country who have had the PIP implants and who should pay for any corrective treatment that is to take place.
Meanwhile, the French government has launched an investigation into how the company, Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) was able to supply the faulty implants to thousands of women. It is thought that between 300,000 and 400,000 women in 65 countries in total have been given implants made with an...
04/01/2012
Transport bosses have called on the government to change regulations which require ministerial approval before safety mirrors for cyclists can be installed at dangerous road junctions.
Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly group, who is also chairman of the Transport Committee, said that in London alone action was urgently needed at the most dangerous junctions, pointing to figures showing the number of cycle deaths in the capital which have gone up from 10 last year to 16 in 2011.
She added that one particular way to achieve this could be through an end to parliamentary restrictions on bringing in safety mirrors at junctions. She said that the mirrors help to remove blind spots and would be welcomed by lorry drivers and cyclists alone, not just in...
03/01/2012
A Yorkshire recycling company has been fined £8,000 after it was alleged to have shown a “blatant disregard” for the safety of its workers.
An HSE investigation into the Universal Recycling Company’s site in Mexborough, near Rotherham, found that the 120 workers at the site were not protected from the dangerous parts of cutting and crushing equipment and it found a number of safety breaches, so many that it had to return for a second day to complete the investigation. It found that there were inadequate safeguards to prevent access to dangerous or moving parts of machinery. Following the visit, HSE inspectors took immediate enforcement action, issuing three Prohibition Notices.
Rotherham Magistrates’ Court heard that the London Wiper Company, which traded as...
28/12/2011
A West Yorkshire builder has been fined after he carried out defective gas fitting work while building an extension on a home.
Nigel Parker, from Wakefield, who trades as Tingley Joinery and Building Services, pleaded guilty to three breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998 after working on the semi-detached property in Batley. He illegally modified the flue of a gas combi-boiler, moved the bayonet fitting for a gas cooker and left a gas meter in an unsafe location.
His shoddy work only came to light when the family, who lived in the home, called in a properly registered gas engineer when the boiler broke down. He noticed the dangers and immediately disconnected the boiler and reported the errors to the Gas Safe Register who declared it to be “immediately...
15/12/2011
A woman who has been left in a coma after using a hair dye kit has been given just an eight percent chance of survival.
Julie McCabe, from Keighley, is on a life support machine in hospital and her husband has been warned that even if she survives she is almost certain to have permanent brain damage.
It is thought that Mrs McCabe may have suffered a severe allergic reaction after using a L’Oreal hair dye product. Doctors caring for her are asking to be provided with the kit and gloves that she used so that tests can be carried out. It is thought that the chemical para-phenylenediamine (PPD) may be linked.
Mrs McCabe’s family is now considering taking legal action as they claim that she dyed her hair every six weeks without suffering any reaction. They have been in touch with a...
28/11/2011
A cyclist is to make a claim against Halfords after being involved in a collision with a car.
Kath Percival, from Preston, suffered cuts and bruises in the collision which took place when she lost her balance when approaching a roundabout in Clitheroe as she was taking part in a weekend cycle ride to York. She claims that she has been in pain for several months since the accident and it has affected her confidence when cycling on roads.
The problems started when Mrs Percival took her specialised Roubaix bike to her local branch of Halfords for a service ahead of the cycle ride. She got the bike back believing it was in good shape for the journey ahead but she soon encountered problems, especially with the cycle’s gear mechanism. She made her way to York but took the bike to a...
28/11/2011
They have been present in Britain since 1951 and featured on perhaps the best known album cover in the world, but now it appears that zebra crossings are on the way out.
The distinctive black and white road markings, made famous in the Beatles Abbey Road album cover, are vanishing with an AA spokesman predicting that they will eventually become obsolete in towns and villages.
Already, over the last five years, their numbers have fallen by about 1,000, due largely to a rise in the number pedestrian accident deaths and injuries on crossing, which has been put down to drivers failing to stop as well as low fines being handed out to those who get caught. Increasingly they are being seen as inferior to other driver warnings such as red lights and flashing signs and Andrew Hammond, road safety...
03/11/2011
The Health Secretary is set to respond to fears that patient care is poor in many care homes and hospitals by announcing a series of spot checks.
Andrew Lansley is due to announce, in a major speech, that a programme of unannounced checks by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which took place over the summer, are to be extended and he will promise tough action in circumstances where they find the standard of care to be unacceptable. He will say: "Where there is great care, we will celebrate it. But whenever there are pockets of poor performance, we will root it out."
He says that around 50 hospitals, 500 care homes and 150 centres for people with learning difficulties will face the checks and ministers have told the CQC to get tough with those who fail, with action possibly...
02/11/2011
The family of a man who broke his neck in a fall have issued a complaint to a hospital after it sent him home without diagnosing the injury.
Gary Green, a labourer, was taken to Ipswich Hospital after working on the second floor of a building and falling off his ladder, landing on his head. At hospital he had X-rays and a CT scan before being sent home with doctors still unaware that he had broken two bones in his spine. He was still in excruciating pain for two days at home before going back to hospital on the advice of a physiotherapist. This time an MRI scan established that he had suffered a severe neck injury. He received emergency surgery and is currently recovering in hospital.
However, his family are demanding answers over how the hospital failed to spot the injuries in...
31/10/2011
A man has been arrested by police investigating the accident at Gleision colliery in Wales last month in which four miners lost their lives.
The man, who is in custody, is thought to be the manager of the mine, Malcolm Fyfield and he is being held on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. The four died when the drift mine flooded with water, three others escaped, including Mr Fyfield. Police are still investigating the mine accident together with the HSE.
Detective Chief Inspector Dorian Lloyd of the South Wales Police specialist crime team said that the arrest followed discussions between the police, the HSE and the Crown Prosecution Service and added that they would continue to work closely with the bereaved families throughout the process.
http://www.workplacelaw.net/...
25/10/2011
A new report by peers in the House of Lords has expressed fears over the competence and language skills of foreign doctors and warns that it could take six years for more strictly controlled regulations to come into force.
The report, from the Lords EU committee, entitled Safety First, says that measures need to be taken now to protect patients from possible harm and that doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists who come into the UK from overseas should be checked to ensure they have the necessary competence and language skills as well as up-to-date experience. However, they warned that under a timetable for changes through a European commission review, it could take until 2017 for those changes to come into effect.
There has been pressure placed on government and medical...
25/10/2011
Marks & Spencer is facing a heavy fine over failing to protect staff, customers and workers from asbestos exposure.
The store giant, along with three contractors, is due for sentence at Bournemouth Crown Court following refurbishment work carried out at two of its stores in Reading and Bournemouth between 2006 and 2007. A three-month trial at Winchester Crown Court has already found M&S guilty of health and safety failings, while the three contractors were also found to be in breach of health and safety legislation.
The court heard that asbestos had been found in ceiling tiles at the two stores when the work was carried out but that M&S had not allocated enough time for the removal of the material, forcing the contractors to work overnight in some cases so as not...
03/10/2011
New figures have revealed that the road transport industry has the UK's worst fork lift truck safety record.
Figures, published by the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) in time for National Fork Lift Safety Week, show that there has been a massive 237% increase in lift truck-related injuries to road transport employees since 2001/02 and that injuries in this sector now account for approximately a quarter of the total UK injury toll. The road industry in 2004 had the UK's fifth worst figure, but now the industry sees more fork lift truck accidents than the next four industries combined.
The problems for the road transport industry are made even clearer by the fact that in the same timescale, between 2001/02 and 2009/10, the storage and warehousing industry, which had previously...
21/09/2011
Nurses in Wales have objected to a decision by health bosses in the principality to ban Crocs at work.
Bosses have taken the controversial decision because they do not offer adequate protection from sharp objects and follow similar bans in hospitals in parts of the US, Canada, Sweden and Austria. All Welsh health boards have been sent the instructions which are said to be due to a number of incidents where sharp objects have pierced the soles of the shoes.
However, the decision has been criticised by nurses with Crocs being the "shoe of choice" for many within the NHS because of their comfort and the fact they are relatively easy to clean. One said: "Crocs can be cleaned if a blood spillage occurred. Do they expect us to wear blood-stained trainers?"
Peter Meredith-Smith,...
15/09/2011
Two Sheffield firms have been fined at Sheffield Magistrates Court after a worker broke his arm in a fall from a rooflight.
Nikitas Coulson suffered his injuries after falling three and a half metres to the ground after falling from the rooflight whilst he was part of a team removing asbestos from Sheffield College before its demolition.
The court heard that after his accident the remaining rooflights were all boarded over to make them safe but the Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted Mr Coulson's employer, Lilquest Asbestos Management and the principal contractor, JF Finnegan, said that this should have been done before the team started work on the roof.
Both firms pleaded guilty to breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 with JF Finnegan being fined £15,000...
09/09/2011
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has joined forces with the asbestos training industry to help workers throughout the country protect themselves from asbestos dust.
The executive hopes to achieve a target of 4,000 asbestos awareness training hours as well as another 4,000 hours of online training to be provided during October and November and which will be aimed at tradesmen like joiners, electricians and plumbers who are most at risk from asbestos-relates diseases. The figure of 4,000 was specifically chosen as that is the approximate number of deaths each year from exposure to the dust.
A glance at the figures shows that any new campaigns aimed at helping increase awareness of the risks are badly needed. Since the late 1960s over 40,000 people in Britain have lost their...
07/09/2011
Midlands driver has won £2,000 in compensation for damage caused to his car by potholes despite his local council warning that he faced losing thousands if he pursued his claim.
Hamilton Bland, from Coventry, who is a former BBC sports commentator, damaged his car in the winter of 2010 when his Mercedes vehicle hit potholes which damaged three of the wheels. He took his car to a garage who told him that the wheels could not be repaired and that it would cost £2,000 to replace them.
However Coventry Council refused to accept liability and lawyers representing the council sent letters to Mr Bland warning him that he would face a bill of £3,500 if he decided to pursue the claim through the courts and subsequently lost. However, he ignored the warnings and took the matter further,...
07/09/2011
The car manufacturer Ford is to start fitting inflatable rear seat belts on all of its compatible cars.
Though there is as yet no date for when they will start to be fitted in Europe, they will shortly be added to the new Explorer model in the USA. Though rear seatbelts have been compulsory since 1991 they do not offer the same protection as the new technology which spreads the impact of a collision across five times the body area of a normal seatbelt, thus helping to reduce personal injury to passengers.
It works by sensors in the car working out how severe the crash has been which then triggers a flow of gas going through a special buckle. The belts inflate slower than a normal airbag so controlling the head and neck motion.
The new inflatable rear seatbelts will be added to...
02/09/2011
A new report has emphasised the many advantages that more cyclists on the roads bring to the economy, though warnings concerning road safety could affect the numbers expected to take it up in the future.
The report, from the London School of Economics, which has been published by Sky and British Cycling, found that cycling raises almost £3bn for the British economy through the approximately 13 million cyclists in the UK, taking on average, one day less off work due to sickness compared to non-cyclists. This alone saves the economy £128m per year and the report says that a 20% increase in the number of cyclists over the next four years could save the economy £2bn over the next decade through reduced absenteeism. The report's author Dr Alexander Grous adds that it brings real...
30/08/2011
Police investigating the death of a care home resident have arrested an employee of the home on suspicion of assault.
The 36-year-old woman worked at the Partridge Care Centre in Harlow, Essex, a privately-run home where one woman died and two others were taken to hospital through what were believed to be overdoses of insulin. Essex County Council and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have both launched investigations and the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate has said that it is looking into the care and treatment of residents.
A spokesman said: "Investigators have spoken to family members and residents at the care centre as part of their ongoing inquiries." He added that a number of organisations including the CQC were reviewing all the care procedures currently in...
16/08/2011
The General Medical Council is to investigate 12 doctors who are all employed by Atos Healthcare, the firm which assesses people claiming disability benefit.
It is believed that most of the allegations involving the doctors concern their treatment of vulnerable people at the time the government's "work capability assessments" were being carried out. If it is found that they did not put the care of patients first, the doctors could be struck off.
The news that the doctors are under investigation raises fresh questions over the government's controversial welfare to work programme and about its commitment to Atos Healthcare which was recently criticised by the work and pensions select committee. The all-party committee said that too many people had failed to get the service from...
16/08/2011
