• Home
  • |
  • Blog
  • |
  • Care Home in court for Health & Safety breaches

December 9, 2013

Care Home in court for Health & Safety breaches

09 Dec 2013 A failed care home will be discussed in court. Meppershall Care Home will be discussed in two cases at Bedford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday afternoon (December 11). The Care Quality Commission took urgent action to close the nursing home in July this year to protect the residents’ welfare and safety. Health and safety at the care home first came into question after resident Mrs May Ward died in August 2010. The company that ran the home, GA Projects Limited of Crompton Road in Stevenage, will go before the magistrates on Wednesday. The informant is listed as the Health and Safety Executive. The first charge is that on or before August 27 2010 GA Projects failed to care for the residents at the Shefford Road home in such a way as to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that people including May Ward were not exposed to the risk of falling or being dropped during or after a transfer using a hoist.
An inquest in January this year heard staff had put Mrs Ward into a sling without attaching the correct straps to her legs. Miss Wei and Miss Ivanova had not been trained to use the sling.
The second charge is that the company failed in its duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees in relation to transferring residents using a hoist, thereby exposing them to risk of injury including back injuries. Additionally Mr Mohammed Haniffa Zarook, 71, will go before the court. Mr Zarook, of Sauncey Wood in Harpenden is charged with being a director of G A Projects at the care home on or before August 27 2010, when the above offences allegedly occurred. Article about full list of inspection concerns. Article about woman who died after hoist fall  

Related Posts

Throwback Thursday: Training the Special Forces in UAE

Some years ago we were asked, because of the common technology shared by our trainers (the “9 Attitudes” framework and our Behavioural Self-Protection training methodology) to put together a team of experienced police and tactical trainers for a project in the UAE.  A client with a specific requirement to train their operators to enter buildings and

Read More

Care Home Safe Holding: Issues in Managing Distress in Dementia Care

Time and again caregiving staff in services for older people are explaining scenarios where they believe: 1) The resident’s care needs and previously reported challenging behaviour / violent incidents were not assessed properly prior to admission to the home. 2) The instructions from supervisors were not appropriate to the person’s needs. 3) Newly identified risks

Read More

Safer People Handling Qualification

A significant continuing professional development engagement this week sees Dynamis training director Gerard O’Dea going through a BTEC Level4 course with a national-level safety organisation.   Gerard is busy learning about the safer handling of vulnerable people, the assessment of their movement needs and how to design and risk assess moving and handling.   The ultimate result

Read More

Gerard O'Dea


Gerard O'Dea is the Director of Training for Dynamis. Training Advisor, Speaker, Author and Expert Witness on Personal Safety, Conflict Management and Physical Interventions, he is the European Advisor for Vistelar Conflict Management, a global programme focussing on the spectrum of human conflict.