Worker suing health trust

A Shropshire woman has launched a legal battle for compensation of more than £300,000 after injuring her shoulder at the hospital where she worked.

Susan Jolin, 43, of Lavender Cottage, Hospital Lane, Clun, worked as an ultrasonographer for Worthing and Southlands Hospital NHS Trust before moving to Shropshire.

She says her work led to so much pain in her neck and shoulder she had to give up.

She has been unable to work for two years and says that the chances of returning to any work in the future are "bleak".

Mrs Jolin said: "This has gone on for long enough. I am just hoping that it can be resolved as soon as possible."

A spokesman for Worthing and Southlands Hospital NHS Trust said that he was unable to comment on individual cases.

Mrs Jolin's solicitor, Elizabeth Smith, of London-based Douglas-Mann and Co, said that it could take many months to resolve the claim.

She added her client's work had involved scanning patients, including obstetric, gynaecological, abdominal, and baby hip scanning.

Mrs Jolin first developed pain in her neck and shoulder at work in July 2005, but took painkillers and carried on with her work.

She suffered another episode of pain in September 2005 and spoke to her manager after believing that her symptoms might be work related.

However, Mrs Jolin says that her department became busier, with more referrals, and afternoon breaks were lost.

By early 2006, she was taking painkillers and then her pain worsened when a locum left.

She needed to take five weeks off in April 2006 and stopped working in May 2006. Her employment with the NHS was terminated in July 2007, the writ says.

Mrs Jolin accuses the trust of negligence and says it failed to monitor the work of the ultrasound department, failed to carry out risk assessment of the workload and was culpable in other ways.

The trust, she says, created a clear and foreseeable risk that she would suffer an injury at work.

Mrs Jolin says her injury was caused entirely by her work.

She is still receiving physiotherapy and has been treated for depression.

By Andy Richardson