When does a failure to prosecute health & safety violations breach human rights? Kate Beattie reports
Criminal prosecutions have not, hitherto, been used as a general regulatory tool for ensuring patient safety and standards of care within the NHS. But this may be set to change. Last month the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation in the case of a diabetic patient, Gillian Astbury, who died after nurses failed to give her insulin. The case, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), alleged that the trust had failed to devise, implement or manage systems of communication for sharing patient information, including in relation to shift handovers and record-keeping. The trust is now awaiting sentence at the Crown Court where an unlimited fine may be imposed.
The HSE has insisted that its decision to bring the prosecution does not mark a shift in its regulatory role in the health service, and that it has previously prosecuted NHS providers, including trusts, in relation to similar incidents. But the prosecution nevertheless comes after criticism in the report of the
