i recieved a needlestick at work from a box of contaminated sharps i work for an agency and i recieved no training and they say they are not responsable for my occupational health, any advice what i should do next
Answers:
To have a personal injury claim you need to establish 3 things: 1) that the employer owes you a duty of care: in the UK, all employees on work premises are owed a duty of care. 2) you have to prove that they have breached that duty of care- Well I don't know the answer to that as I don't know all the circumstances- were they in any way negligent in their storage of the sharps? Were you carrying out an instruction or did you contribute toward your situation? 3) Having proved the other 2 points, you then have to prove that there is damage resulting from the breach of that duty of care: some of the other posts have said you are fine, I take a more reserved approach, as noone knows exactly what was on those sharps, you may have picked up something that takes ages to manifest itself in the same way the HIV virus does, I am not saying you have it at all, I am merely pointing out that sometimes we do things and the full consequences of those actions do not appear until much later.
If the answer to all three of those questions is yes then you may well have a claim for personal injury. You must also have reported the accident at work and will need to get hold of accident reports, medical reports and any witnesses you may have. Only then will you have an idea whether it is worth claiming or not. I am an employment law specialist, not a personal injury expert, get a free personal injury consultation to know for sure. hope this helps
You have to prove damages. You have that? No? Then forget it.
Yes you are, it is their responsibility to ensure they don't employ untrained staff
check your labour board or workers compensation board... watch your back after the complaint.. they cant fire you but can make life hell for you good luck.. you may need a lawyer
To win a personal injury claim, you have to prove (1) that someone else is responsible for something bad that that has happened to you, (2) that the bad thing caused you harm and (3) that the harm is in some way significant.
If the harm is minor, you will waste more time and money getting a judgment against someone than it is worth.
did you report this at the place where this happened, is there a written record? if so then maybe, however the responsibility would be with the place you worked at and not the agency.
however the risk of infection/contaimination is extreamly slim almost impossible as. i wouldn't bother seeking compensation, you are fine arent you? we have to get out of being a compensation society!
The mind boggles as to how you managed to get pricked with a needle that was in a box. A proper sharps box should not be accessible to any part of your body. If it was not a proper container for these needles and syringes then yes you have a claim. Both your agency and the person you worked for on the day have a duty of care. Your agency should give you the proper training before sending you out on a job. Get some legal advise. Good luck.
They should trained you first the right way and the wrong way
and you should check your contract and did you tell your supervisor or your boss what happend to you
Why on earth is a medical secretary carrying out a compliance audit? That in itself implies that you were doing a job you had not been trained for. If you were asked to carry out this audit, then the company is liable.
The answers above are very good but a little academic perhaps - what you need is practical advice
.
In very simple terms, it there was any appreciable risk that you may have come across a stay needle in the course of your employment, then the employer was obliged to provide you with sharps-resitant gloves (Provison and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998; amongst others).
As a strict liability offence, negligence is irrelevant to breach of the regulations.
You therefore have a potential claim.
however, if it's a minor stick injury, without any other physical or psychiatric consequences the value in damages is negligible (i.e. not even worth making).
hi there. employers have a duty of care towards their employees, even on agency rules.
more to the point, i know for a fact that working with sharps isn't in a medical secretary's job description. i have worked as a medical secretary and we weren't even allowed anywhere near potential hazards like that.
i've also worked in personal injury (as a secretary) and employers not giving correct training to employees is contributes to a pretty big chunk of the claims we dealt with. an agency saying they are not responsible for your occupational health is definitely irresponsible on their part. they are in the wrong - ive found that a lot of agencies are sketchy on their rules and tend not to treat the employee as well as they would be treat in a permanent position.
as i don't know the full extent of the story, the best thing for you to do is take this up with your local citizen's advice beurau. they have lawyers there to give you free advice on what you should do and whether you could have a claim. hope this helps you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment