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#1 Posted : 19 September 2001 11:51:00(UTC)
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Posted By T. Fowler Am I right in thinking that HASAWA is not the primary law associated with harm caused to a hospital patient, or indeed a client or customer, as a result of a poor quality of service, delivered by a professional, which may be found to be at a negligent level? I understand how civil negligence cases are brought by individuals but under what law are criminal negligence cases brought by the police?
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#2 Posted : 24 September 2001 09:47:00(UTC)
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Posted By Maggie Atterbury Patients/ clients would be covered by Section 3 of the Health and Safety At Work Act relating to "persons not in his employment" and the requirement to ensure that they are "not exposed to risks to their health or safety".
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#3 Posted : 24 September 2001 10:46:00(UTC)
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Posted By Bryn Maidment My understanding is that clinical negligence that causes injury, loss, death etc is treated as Assault or Manslaughter. e,g recent case of 2 doctors in Wales being done for manslaughter - they removed a man's only healthy kidney by mistake and he died 10 days later. Having said that , I've heard that the HSE do look into serious cases of clinical negligence to see if any organisational issues were behind the failure. HSE comment? As an indication of the HSE stance read RIDDOR '95, Reg 10 (1) and guidance para 91.
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#4 Posted : 25 September 2001 09:50:00(UTC)
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Posted By Diane Warne It would seem that prosecution could be possible under any relevant safety legislation - this article is cut from the UK Safety News archive (18th March): HSE prosecution in medical error case The HSE has taken a successful prosecution against a hospital trust in a medical error case which arose following the death of a patient who inadvertently received a massive overdose of a painkiller. Carmarthenshire NHS Trust was found to have failed to meet the minimum requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 and was fined £3,000 at Llanelli Magistrates Court with £4,000 costs. The trust admitted that it had not adequately trained its employee, anaesthetist Dr Kala Basnyet, in the use of equipment that dispensed drugs to patients. She had never previously used that particular type of equipment. Ronald Sharpe, 59, a patient recovering from surgery at Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital in June 1998, died from the overdose as a consequence of the equipment being incorrectly programmed. It delivered 10 times the amount of drug that had been prescribed over a three hour period. We are very sorry An out of court settlement was made with Mr Sharpe's family and Chief Executive, Mike Jones, said on the Trust's behalf: "The Trust reacted quickly to address what we saw as the immediate issues raised by Mr Sharpe's death - namely the training of doctors and the use of medical equipment. We are very sorry." Dr Basnyet expressed her regret saying: "I am very sorry for what has happened. My heart goes out to the family. My only concern was to keep Mr Sharpe comfortable and free from pain."
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