30 Oct 2013

Companies charged over hospital asbestos

5:31 pm on 30 October 2013

Two companies are facing charges of exposing staff to asbestos while they were working on the roof of Christchurch Hospital.

In May this year, two maintenance workers said they feared that patients and staff at the hospital could have been exposed to the asbestos.

Jeff Richards and Petra Doner told their employer Goleman Ltd, but their fears were ignored. It wasn't until they told the contractor, Fletchers, that the site was shut down two weeks later.

The Canterbury District Health Board has said it is confident that hospital staff and patients were not exposed to white asbestos. It will not comment further now that the issue is before the courts.

Following a lengthy investigation, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has laid two charges under the Health and Safety Act against two organisations, but won't say which ones.

One charge is for a breach of Section 18 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992; the other is for a breach of Section 6 of the same Act.

The case is due in court on 13 November.