No

It's a tricky one. I wonder if they are saying that a walk in centre is not a hospital?

I think this is what they were getting at, please see excerpt from HSE website below: What is reportable. Q. A person slipped over in the shop, but said they were unhurt. Much later they told us they had gone to their GP the next day, who then referred them to hospital. Is this reportable? A. No. The injured person must be taken from where the accident happened, by whatever means, to a hospital for treatment. A GP practice or a drop-in clinic is not a hospital, so there is no duty to report. As stated a GP practice or drop in clinic is not a hospital, very naughty of them!!

What answer was given at the interview, we haven't been told? He may have said 'no' too?

Thanks for your Answers. The answer they were after was "NO" because, as has been correctly surmised by some, a drop in medical centre is not a hospital. The company is not large and would hope not to get any RIDDOR Incidents. I did think afterwards what the HSE might consider the correct response to be. Clearly a drop in centre is not a hospital but really that's just semantics. The IP had been taken to a professional medical facility and received treatment for an injury. If a hospital was close by they could have just as easily been taken there so is the defining issue of whether its reportable or not proximity to a hospital rather than anything else ????? They were very open about the issue and we had a discussion about it afterwards. They knew it was a little bit of a sneaky question. When reading RIDDOR related issues on here they are plenty of users who advise... "if in doubt, report it". As a safety professional that would seem right, i.e. thinking only safety but not commercially, but there are plenty of employers out there, my current one included, who wouldn't want to report and accident if they didn't absolutely have to. Thanks again for your responses. Andy

thanks for the feedback fiesta. The reason I asked the question on the organisation was given the frequency on use of the Regs. for example in large retail environment with many construction projects on-going from new builds to refresh. I would have expected the 'no' answer at a blink. in a manufacturing environment would the safety bloke / lady be required to know this, perhaps not. would you have even asked this question? No for me. As we have debated on here RIDDOR many times the only way you get know your way around them is with frequent use. Not all safety managers etc use them that frequently, hence the Q's on here.

The problem here is that the ‘right’ answer, which you gave-report as the difference between a drop in centre and A&E is just semantics is not what the company wanted ie don’t report until you absolutely have to-which is the ‘wrong’ answer but what the company wanted to hear.

Thanks for the update ---------- With all due respect my local 'drop in centre [DIC]' is being advertised as a hospital department by the GP's and other NHS areas and is 'pushed' as the place to go if you have a medical problem No distinctions are noted in any advertising between the hospital and the DIC [which is in the hospital grounds] and I would not have called it by another name because of the GP etc. advertising until I read this posting and as far as i know it [although I have not read RIDDOR for a time] the term 'drop in centre' in the law is not mentioned nor is a difference between a hospital and other such places noted So does this now mean that we have to tell all employees that they have to go to hospital and not the DIC's if they have an accident at work!

Having looked at this thread I revisited the HSE pages on RIDDOR. I must be losing it as I can now see that the ACoP has gone- all those pages describing the different scenarios has now been replaced by this 5 page leaflet-http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/examples-reportable-incidents.htm Not very helpful is it? and no mention of Drop in Centre v A&E

So, did you get the job Andy?

Strictly speaking the only person who can tell us whether a walk in centre is a hospital or not is a judge (in a court of record). The interviewers were in effect trying to second guess honourable members of the bench… generally not a good thing. I can image them trying to explain to his/her honour why they did not report something under RIDDOR: “well it was a drop-in centre not a hospital”. The appropriate judicial response being “nobody likes a smart arse!”

"They were to be answered pretty much on the spot without the ability to discuss ( I was given a copy of the Regs for reference)" I think there was no discussion of the answer which leads to the assumption that the interview panel knew the 'right' answer ie the one they wanted to hear