Wednesday August 18, 2010 at 11:30pm
If you are a nurse and have suffered injuries to your back or you experienced pain while lifting or attempting to move a patient at a hospital you may be entitled to compensation.
For your claim to be successful, you will need to show that the hospital failed to take certain steps to prevent your injuries.
In one case against a hospital, Mrs Web was injured when with a Sister she endeavoured to move a patient who weighed approximately 22 stone and suffered from senile dementia. During the course of the lifting, Mrs Web's back was injured.
On three other occasions, Mrs Web was engaged in moving another patient who was extremely heavy together with other heavy patients as a result of which the injury to Mrs Web's back was made worse.
In Court, Mrs Web was able to prove that her back injury was caused by the negligence of her employer, the hospital and she was awarded substantial compensation.
The Court agreed with Mrs Web that the accident had occurred because the hospital had failed to maintain a safe system of work and had failed to provide appropriate mechanical hoist equipment to move patients. The hospital had also failed to provide enough numbers of strong staff to move patients.
Mrs Web convinced the court that her employer, the hospital had failed to take action when she and her colleagues made complaints about the weight of the patients and about the lack of lifting equipment.