13th June 2006

Nurses' Emergency Lifting

Injured Back caused by Lifting

The claimant was a care assistant at a residential home. A resident suffered a suspected heart attack while sitting in a chair and the claimant was ordered by her manager along with a colleague to move him from the chair to the floor for emergency resuscitation. She had a back injury moving the resident.

We showed the 5th edition of the "Nurses' Guide to Handling of People" dated 2005 had details of a specific method of transferring a patient to the floor stemming from a 2001 paper by a nursing expert.

Lifting and Handling Training

The defendant should have been aware of this and foreseen that, as heart resuscitation training was given regularly, so should manual handling training have been given for safe methods of moving a patient. The employer owned the book in question but had made no efforts to train individual staff on a practical basis.

It was held they were liable under regulation 4 (1)(b) of the Manual Handling Regulations for failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment so as to reduce the risk of injury through training.

Claim for Compensation

If you have suffered an injury at work due to lifting a heavy object, contact us now to find out if you are entitled to make a claim for compensation.

Telephone us now on 0800 783 9019 or complete one of our online compensation claim forms.

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