Nurse gets £144,000 latex allergy payout

A nurse at Bolton Royal Hospital has received £144,000 in compensation after her allergy to latex gloves went untreated for years. In its worst stages, Bernadette Chouchene's allergy saw her going to work with sore and bleeding hands. Despite the allergy developing over nearly 10 years and regular visits to Bolton Royal Hospital's occupational health service, at no time did her employer provide her with alternative gloves.

According to her legal advisers, her employer also failed to carry out a simple test for latex allergy or provide her with alternative vinyl gloves. Sarah Brumpton, a solicitor with law firm Irwin Mitchell and who represented RCN member Mrs Chouchene, said this amounted to clear breaches of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) and Personal Protective Equipment Regulations. She added: 'It seems incredible that despite the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, the hospital made no attempt over the years to monitor this lady. She tried to do the right thing by going to her occupational health department but she was never properly tested and provided with an alternative nor was her condition ever monitored.' Mrs Chouchene said:

'It got to the point where I was finding it very difficult to do my job. Occasionally, it was so bad blood would run down my hands. By 2000, I could only tolerate wearing the gloves for 5 minutes before I had to rip them off run my hands under the tap to try and soothe them and get rid of any traces of latex.'

In December 2004, UNISON member and former nurse Alison Dugmore received a £330,000 payout for life-threatening latex allergy.