An ambulance worker who lost the job he loved as a result of a serious back injury, has today accepted an offer of £140,000 compensation from the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service. Mr Norman Thurrell (58) was supported by his union, UNISON, after he was badly injured in August 1999 as a result of faulty ambulance equipment.
Mr Thurrell was transporting a 19 stone patient to the Duchess of York Hospital in Manchester, when two wheels came off the undercarriage of the stretcher causing its self support system to fail and leaving him to carry the full weight of not only the patient, but the heavy stretcher. Mr Thurrell bore the weight for approximately 5 minutes, before the patient could be safely put back into the ambulance. As a result he damaged his lower back and right leg so severely that his employment was terminated in August 2000.
Mr Thurrell said:
ÒI worked for the ambulance service for 21 years and IÕve lost the job that I enjoyed through no fault of my own. I would like to see ambulance workers given much more say over the type of equipment and ambulances used – they are the ones who really know whatÕs needed and what works and what doesnÕt. Like a lot of my colleagues I didnÕt like these stretchers – they were not designed for our ambulances and had to be converted to fit into them. In the end the equpment let me down.
ÒNot only have I lost my job, but I canÕt do all the things at home that I used to love, like gardening. I have a large garden and now I have to rely on my wife and son to take care of it.Ó
Jon Richards, National Health Officer for UNISON, said:
ÒUNISON are calling for frontline ambulance workers to be more involved in the purchase of new equipment. We are constantly having to bring cases to court where workers have been injured by the equipment they use. Some of the trolleys and carry chairs we see are well past their sell by date or not maintained – others appear to have been designed without thought for the worker who has to lift them. The pressure on resources also sometimes means that equipment can get interchanged, meaning the wrong gear on the wrong ambulance. It is vital that checks are carried out regularly to ensure that everything is working safely.
ÒUnfortunately Mr ThurrellÕs case is all too common in the ambulance service. UNISON has called for ambulance workers to retire at 55, as injuries are a serious problem in the service. The Department of Health needs to target guidance on manual handling specifically at ambulance workers, because they are a vulnerable group, but tend to get overlooked when it comes to new initiatives.”
Last year UNISON recovered more than £1.5 million on behalf of health workers who suffered back injuries at work.
Katy Clark, UNISON legal officer said:
“We see far too many cases like this where ambulance and other health staff suffer avoidable back injuries. Every year UNISON continues to win compensation for members in back injury cases which could have been prevented . These are the tip of the iceberg. We can only win compensation where we can prove in court that the employer has been negligent.”
Note for editors:
Health and Safety Executive figures show that between 1992 – 1995 nearly 14,000 manual handing incidents were reported in the NHS – 60% of these involved manual handling; around 3,600 nurses retire each year as a result of back injuries.
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