Injuries moving a patient – care home claims and hospital claims

Patients in care homes and hospitals with severely limited mobility will often need the assistance of staff on a continual basis. Whether a patient needs to be moved for a bed bath, or moved to remove bedding, or moved out of a bed completely perhaps, the task needs to be done safely.

Manual handling regulations apply for employers and employees in the same way they apply in any role that involves lifting and moving. Read on for more advice.

The Law

Whilst the regulations often use the term ‘load’ which is of course not quite appropriate for patients, the same ideals behind the regulations must be adhered to. The legislation, called The Manual Handling Operations Regulations, puts an important duty on employers to enforce safe lifting and manoeuvring techniques in the line of duty.

The regulations generally stipulate that:

• Manual handling must be avoided where it can be – perhaps through the use of equipment, like a hoist in the case of patients
• Any manual handling that cannot be avoided must be risk assessed to ensure that there are adequate numbers of staff able to assist and to eliminate the risk of injury as much as possible
• Staff must be fully trained and capable of carrying out the task safely and should be supervised where necessary

The above are the general important requirements. Essentially the employer should remove the need to carry out such manual handling unless it absolutely cannot be avoided. Where this is the case, the task must be carried out safely to avoid injury. Failing to adhere to this leaves them liable to compensate an injured employee.

Manual handling injuries of this nature are normally rather severe. Injuries to the back, shoulders, neck, and arms are common, and they can often be fairly debilitating and leave the victim needing a lot of time off work. For a claim like this, you can be compensated for the pain and suffering caused as well as any losses and expenses incurred, such as lost earnings from time off work.

How does a claim work?

The process can be rather straightforward. Whether you have been injured in a single event whilst trying to move a patient dangerously, or where you have been injured over time from excessive and / or prolonged dangerous lifting, your employers insurance is there to potentially cover you. We normally submit a Claim Notification Form and ask that the insurer admit liability within 30 business days from submission.

For help and advice call 0800 634 75 75 today.