HSE enforcement action prompts warning to health and care providers on COVID-19 respiratory protective equipment.

HSE has announced that it has taken enforcement action against an NHS Trust in relation to a lack of “Face Fit” testing for respiratory protective equipment (RPE) in the early days of the pandemic.
Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust was providing RPE to its staff for certain procedures, but HSE’s investigation found that not all persons had received adequate Face Fit testing to ensure that the RPE was sealed to the wearer’s face.

The investigation was conducted after the tragic death of FGH radiographer Simon Guest from the virus in April 2020.  Read

Cheltenham care home provider ordered to pay £495,170 after failing to provide safe care & treatment.

A care provider has been ordered to pay £495,170 after it failed to protect residents from avoidable harm.
Lifeways Community Care Limited, which operated Alstone House Cheltenham,
It was also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge &  £35,000 costs to the CQC which brought this prosecution.
Alstone House was a residential care home that  supported adults who had physical disabilities,
learning disabilities and some who had acquired brain injuries. Read

The Action Group, who provides support to children & adults, has been fined £20,000 after HSE investigated how risks to staff were assessed, in the wake of an attack on an employee by one of its service users.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that a female employee of the Action Group was abducted, assaulted, sexually assaulted and raped in 2018 while visiting the home of a male service user to provide support and care.

The group was fined £20,000. Read More

A care provider has been fined £363,000 after it failed to protect people it cared for from sexual assault.

The care company, which cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to failing to protect a woman who was resident at a care home it runs in Nottinghamshire from abuse & improper treatment.
This resulted in her being sexually assaulted.

It also pleaded guilty to exposing the home’s other residents to significant risk of avoidable harm by failing to safeguard them from the risk of abuse.

The company was also ordered to pay £12,441.28 costs to the CQC, which
prosecuted these criminal offences.

Read

A fitter has been fined following a gas leak from a newly fitted range installed in a North Devon residential care home.

The court heard that in December Mark Whitham undertook the installation of the new gas range cooker after damaging the existing gas cooker whilst fitting out  a new kitchen.
Over the next 24 hours staff at the care home experienced problems with the operation of the cooker & contacted their usual Gas Safe Registered engineer.
He found a substantial gas leak from the gas supply connection to the cooker.

An investigation by the HSE found that Mr Whitham was not registered with the Gas Safe Register.
He was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for each offence, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to undertake 120 hours unpaid work  &costs of £2,000

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