Council in court after respite resident scalded

Date:

13 February 2012

Release No:

COISE/1302

The Isle of Wight Council has been fined £12,000 after an elderly resident staying in respite care was seriously scalded at a care home in Freshwater.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the local authority for failing to have the correct shower fitting at a resource centre, which led to the incident.

Portsmouth Magistrates' Court heard that on the 30 October 2009, Brian Leek 76, was staying at the respite residential care facility at The Gouldings, St Andrews Way, Isle of Wight. This is one of three resource centres operated by the island's council offering a range of facilities and care.

On the day of the incident, Mr Leek entered the bathroom, undressed, turned on the shower and sat on the bath's hoist seat below the shower unit. Unfortunately very hot water from the shower sprayed onto his lower back, scalding him severely and causing 13 per cent burns.

Mr Leek was hospitalised on the Isle of Wight and then transferred to a burns unit in Salisbury. Following this incident, he now lives in a care home and has not been able to return to live with his wife.

The HSE investigation found the shower fitting was not suitable for use in a healthcare facility and was not installed with a thermostatic mixing valve (TMV), which would have limited the temperature to 41°C. Two other resource centres, The Adelaide in Ryde and Westminster House in Newport, also had showers available for use with no TMV protection.

The investigation also found the council had no system for maintaining those TMVs already in place, and had no system for taking water temperatures.

After the hearing, HSE's inspector Joanna Woodcock said:

"Where there is a risk of scalding for vulnerable patients, it is vital that operators fit adequate control measures to ensure that water temperatures are restricted, particularly where people can be almost completely immersed in baths and showers.

"Vulnerable people may be unable to react quickly to avoid the danger. They may also be more liable to serious injury from very hot water. The consequences of scalding can, in addition to causing excruciating pain, be fatal, although thankfully did not happen in this case.

"HSE has extensive, freely available guidance on how the risk of scalding can be controlled. If this guidance had been followed this tragedy would not have happened.

"Everyone involved with the care of vulnerable service users must ensure that they have the necessary safeguards in place. Cases like this are completely avoidable if the correct guidance is followed."

Isle of Wight Council, County Hall, High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, pleaded guilty to Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The local authority was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,133.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. 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." Information on risk assessments can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/index.htm

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR South East