Posted By chrissie Prior to my employment my employer had an issue with an employee who was tube feeding one of our members at our care home. She was having difficulty feeding the member because the feed was not going down properly (apparently a different and longer tube had been inserted by the GP/parents of the member but they hadnt communicated this to staff). The senior in charge at the time was walking past at the time of the feeding and jokingly said 'stand on a chair to feed so the food will go down' The carer proceeded to do just that and fell off a chair. The senior in charge is adament she was joking and insists the carer should have known that. The injured party is now making a claim. I know there have been lapses in our systems but taking into consideration her legal responsibilities as an employee have we got any defense in terms of her duty to take reasonable care of herself, Im thinking on the lines of if someone said 'jump of a cliff' would you do that? Any comments are much appreciated. Chrissie

Posted By J Knight Hi Chrissie, I agree with Heather at the end of the day. It's actually reasonably futile (except out of general interest) to pose the question 'are we liable' because we can't actually determine that. What the situation is is that the injured party has persuaded somebody (a solicitor or claims farmer) that she has grounds for a claim, that claim will be tested by the relevant insurance companies, who will make a decision to setlle with little reference to either of the two parties, or it will go to court where a decision will be made by a Judge. So really, whether we think we are liable or not has no bearing on the outcome. We might be able to produce evidence which would defend us in court, but that's about all we can do. We have to examine every accident with a view to understanding how it happened, and how we can prevent it in future (if we can), but to view it in terms of liability, in my view, just leads to frustration, John

Posted By J Knight Fair comment Heather; we still have 'full' insurance and my role is really limited to producing documents as requested by our insurers/solicitors. Of course, if we were self-insured I would be much more involved in the process, John