A formal complaint accuses the British Government of facilitating ‘the largest single health and safety disaster to befall the United Kingdom workforce since the introduction of asbestos products’.
An expert letter to the UK Government’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) from one of its own advisors accuses the agency of failing to use its statutory authority to correct “seriously flawed” guidance on infection protection and control (IPC), imperilling “the health and safety of healthcare workers by failing to provide for suitable respiratory protection”.
The continued failure to protect healthcare workers by ensuring they are wearing the appropriate form of PPE (personal protective equipment) to minimise the risk of infection from COVID-19 airborne transmission, the letter says, has led to thousands of avoidable deaths. The failures amount both to “gross negligence” and serious “criminal offences”, claims the letter seen by Byline Times.
The letter addressed to HSE chief executive Sarah Albon is authored by 27-year chartered health and safety consultant David Osborn, who is a ‘consultee member’ of the HSE’s COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) Essentials Working Group, where he has helped HSE to prepare guidance for employers and employees.
Written in his own personal capacity, the letter is a formal complaint accusing the members of the Government’s “IPC Cell” – a group of experts behind official guidance on infection protection and control – along with other senior Government officials of committing a “criminal offence… ultimately punishable by fine and/or imprisonment” by breaching Section 36 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The letter argues that a police investigation is needed.
The guidance, Osborn writes in his letter, has failed to ensure that healthcare workers understand that they should wear and have access to respiratory protection equipment (RPE) designed to protect from COVID-19 airborne transmission.
“There is sufficient prima-facie evidence to suggest that the offence has led to the potentially avoidable deaths of hundreds of healthcare workers and the debilitating disease known as Long COVID in thousands of other healthcare workers,” the letter says.
“I firmly believe that the primary source of infection was the inhalation of aerosols whilst caring for infected patients at close quarter,” says Osborn in his letter.
Source: Byline Times, 10 February 2022
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