Tuesday 8 June 2010

Trust Fined £50k Over Disabled Patient Death

A hospital trust has been fined £50,000 after a disabled patient died when he got his head stuck in protective bed bars.

Kyle Flack, a quadriplegic who had cerebral palsy, died in October 2006 at Basildon University Hospital.

The hospital in Essex acknowledged that 20-year-old Mr Flack died following failures in its "systems and procedures".

Basildon NHS Trust was also ordered to pay £40,000 costs after a court heard how health and safety failings were a "significant cause" of the death.

"(The trust) accepts that its offending was a significant cause of this death. Management failed to lay down correct procedures.

The Trust earlier admitted breaching health and safety law by failing to ensure patients were not exposed to risk.

It followed a prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Prosecutor Pascal Bates said the hospital had failed to properly supervise Mr Flack, properly pass on information, train staff, assess risk and had not heeded warnings.

"(The trust) accepts that its offending was a significant cause of this death," Mr Bates told the judge. "Management failed to lay down correct procedures."

Gill Flack said the hospital had been the 'worst place' for her son

He said the offences amounted to a "serious" breach of duty and the hospital had fallen "markedly short" of the required standard.

Earlier this year, Mr Flack's mother Gill called for hospital bosses to be "held accountable".

Mrs Flack, of Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, said Basildon University Hospital had been the "worst place" for her son.

She described some care standards at the hospital as "absolute c***".

The hospital said standards had improved.

Six months ago a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found poor hygiene and care standards at the hospital.

Source: Sky News

2 comments:

Witterings from Witney said...

Which just goes to show that inspection commissions make recommendations which dont get acted upon anyway. Too many instances of this type of thing and I can point to many in the world of housing associations and inspections by the audit commission.

The comment on the channel 4 documentary last night were revealing when one manager admitted that you just hide what you dont want the inspections teams to see!

so what is the point of inspections? More bloody box-ticking!

Mark Wadsworth said...

AC1, well done, that was on the telly just now and I made a mental note to track it down.