Boston patient death: hoist instructions 'not enough'

John Biggadike died when he fell while in the hoist and was impaled on a metal post at Boston Pilgrim Hospital

Instructions for a hoist involved in the death of a hospital patient were not comprehensive, a court has heard.

John Biggadike died when he fell while in the hoist and was impaled on a metal post at Boston Pilgrim Hospital.

At Lincoln Crown Court, the prosecution alleged hospital staff were not adequately trained and had wrongly removed a knee support pad.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust denies breaching health and safety regulations.

Mr Biggadike was receiving physiotherapy at the hospital ahead of being discharged in April 2012 when the incident happened.

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The defence suggest Mr Biggadike's death was not caused by failings in training, but by a failure to act after a previous "serious incident" with a hoist at a hospital in Leicester in 2007.

Jurors heard evidence from Sarah Vincent, representing the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Mrs Vincent admitted the Leicester incident was "serious" but conceded the subsequent MHRA investigation was limited to questioning the hoist manufacturer's own investigation and making sure the hospital trust had instructions for using the hoist.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust denies breach of health and safety regulations by exposing non-employees to risk by failing to train, supervise and monitor its employees in relation to the safe use of the lifting hoist on dates between July 2001 and April 2012.

The trial continues.