NHS Tayside staff awarded over £500k in workplace injury compensation

Posted: November 30, 2015

Posted in: Workplace Injuries 

New figures have revealed that NHS Tayside staff have been awarded over £500,000 in workplace injury compensation in the last five years. The total amount went to almost 200 claimants between 2010 and 2015; with injury causes ranging from scalpel accidents to scalds and burns. NHS chiefs said that they take the “health and safety of staff very seriously” and have promised to continue running their internal programme of incident reviews.

The figures found that in 2014/15 alone, a total of £49,611 was paid out to staff members in compensation. Where the previous year had seen a payout of £34,775, (the lowest amount paid in the last five years) the figure was up nearly £15,000. The year with the highest total payout was 2012/13, with a huge total of £309,473 paid out to NHS Tayside staff.

“incident reviews are carried out to identify areas for improvement”

Between 2012 and 2015 a total of 1,325 injuries were reported by the health trust’s staff. Sixty-six doctors, consultants and surgeons, 583 nurses, 64 other medical staff and 612 nonmedical staff all reported injuries suffered at work. The published figures showed that 434 of the incidents had ‘resulted in bruising and swelling’ — the largest cause of injuries in any year. A further 193 injuries were caused by “sharps” in the same period. ‘Sharps’ includes scalpels, razors, and stitch cutters. A spokeswoman for the health board said:

“NHS Tayside takes the health and safety of staff very seriously […] Incident reviews are carried out within the organisation to identify any areas for improvement”.

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