Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for ‘serious safety breaches’, and fined, after a vulnerable patient at Southend Hospital died after falling nine metres from a third-floor window fitted only with a single restrictor in July 2010.
Southend Crown Court heard that Robin Blowes, 69, had been admitted for a bladder operation in June 2010. After developing confusion during his recovery, he was moved to a side room. One evening he sustained serious injuries after falling through the room’s window opening, dying shortly afterwards in the hospital’s emergency department. An HSE investigation found that the Trust’s arrangements for managing the risk of patients falling from windows were ‘inadequate’. The window had been fitted only with a single, angle bracket restrictor, bent to one side, allowing it to be fully opened. Guidance in place since 1989 states that windows in hospitals accommodating vulnerable patients should be restricted to a maximum opening of 10 cm. Southend Hospital had reviewed its window restrictors following a 2007 incident when a patient broke an ankle after jumping from a first floor window, with a 2009 Trust report recommending that ‘chain link restrictors or similar be fitted to all metal casement windows’. However, this was ‘not followed through’. Pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc, the Trust was fined £15,000, with £15,000 in costs. HSE guidance on preventing falls from windows is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/ falls-windows.htm
