Health and Safety Failings – NHS Foundation Trust Fined After Employee Suffers Burns

NHS Foundation Trust Fined After Employee Suffers Burns

Key Facts: 

• A hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust has been fined after an employee suffered serious burns.
• The maintenance worker sustained serious steam burns to his lower body whilst working on a boiler.
• The Trust was subsequently fined  £7,000 plus costs of £1,926 and a victim surcharge of £15.

The Case: 

An HSE investigation was launched into the practices of a hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust after a worker suffered serious burns.

In November 2012, the maintenance worker was stripping down a steam boiler at the NHS Foundation Trust hospital for a periodic inspection. He was removing the crown valve from a boiler when he suffered serious steam burns to his lower body. The boiler system had only one point of isolation, and was therefore not able to prevent steam leaking into the section he was working on.

The subsequent HSE investigation found that the NHS Foundation Trust hospital had no safe system of work in place for assessing and controlling these risks to workers. No records of their maintenance employees was maintained, and there was not suitable supervision for these workers.

The case was heard at Northampton Magistrates’ Court in May 2015 where the hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safet at Work etc Act of 1974. They were fined £7,000 plus costs of £1,926 and a victim surcharge of £15.

What the law states: 

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 states:

‘It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.’

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