States Employment Board admits health and safety breach which led to elderly patient's death

Saturday 01 July 2017

The States Employment Board is to be sentenced by the Royal Court in August following the death of an elderly woman at a States residential home.

83-year-old Mary Cornish suffered serious head injuries on 2 March 2016 after falling from a bath hoist, and died four days later.

Mrs Cornish was suffering from dementia and was an in-patient at Rosewood House - a States-run residential home on the St Saviour's Hospital complex site - when the incident occurred. She fell from an ambulift bath hoist onto the floor of the bathroom while she was being dried and dressed. She subsequently died from her injuries on 6 March.

The States Employment Board is accused of not having respected the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law for not ensuring "so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in your employment who may be affected thereby were not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety, in that you failed to take any or adequate steps to prevent them from the risk of failing from the ambulift bath hoist at the said premises."

The SEB has admitted the infraction and will be sentenced by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court  on 18 August.