CARE HOME AND DIRECTOR FINED FOR BREACHING SAFETY LAWS

HSE press release: E072:03 -2 May 2003

A Buckinghamshire care home and its director were fined a total of £17,000 at Reading Crown Court on 29 April for breaching health and safety legislation.

Whitefields Care Homes Ltd, Station House, 11 Masons Avenue, Harrow, Middlesex - owners and operators of Beaconsfield House Nursing Home, Ledborough Lane, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire was fined £10,000 plus £5,569.18 costs for breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc., Act 1974, (HSWA) in failing to ensure the health and safety of persons not in its employment.

Mr Bipin Bhagani, a director of Whitefields Care Homes Ltd. was also fined £7,500 and £15,000 costs for breaching section 37(1) of the HSWA, in that the offence was committed with his consent or connivance, in relation to the same incident. This fine was the fourth highest imposed on a director in recent years for a breach under Section 37(1).

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution followed an incident on 7 February 2001 in which an 85 year old resident, Mrs Violet Frith, sustained serious burns to her legs whilst she was sleeping in her bed at Beaconsfield House Nursing Home. The burns arose from contact with the hot surface of a radiator, which was located next to the bed. Mrs Frith contracted a wound infection and died on 04 March 2001.

The case was heard before Reading Crown Court, Old Shire Hall, The Forbury, Reading, on Tuesday 29 April 2003. The company and the director entered guilty pleas to the charges.

After the hearing, HSE investigating inspector Stephen Hartley said:"This sad incident could have been easily prevented. Care homes and hospitals should be well aware of the risk that hot radiators and pipework present to vulnerable, elderly people.

"This case serves to remind Directors of the need to ensure that their organisations manage risks to health and safety effectively."

Notes to editors

1. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc., Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby, are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."

2. Section 37(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 stats: "Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provision committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or of the similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly." Following legal advice, the word 'neglect' was changed to 'consent'.

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