Doctor and mum-of-two has months to live due to asbestos-related cancer after exposure at Coventry hospital - The Coventry Observer

Doctor and mum-of-two has months to live due to asbestos-related cancer after exposure at Coventry hospital

Coventry Editorial 27th Feb, 2020 Updated: 27th Feb, 2020   0

A FORMER Coventry doctor has only months to live after contracting an asbestos-related cancer after exposure as a trainee during the demolition of Walsgrave Hospital.

A high court judge described the case involving Dr Kate Richmond, 44, as “particularly tragic and urgent”.

She now lives in Australia with her husband Brett and two children, Lauren, 8, and Finn, 11.

Dr Richmond was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May 2018 and recently started immunotherapy treatment.




At a high court hearing in London last November, Judge Master Davison found that – in the case brought against successor organisation University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust – she had been negligently exposed to asbestos.

A decision is expected in early April concerning how much compensation Dr Richmond is to be awarded.


Dr Richmond’s legal team, from law firm Leigh Day, maintained she was exposed to asbestos during her time at Walsgrave Hospital, in Coventry, between 1998 and 2004, when she was a trainee doctor and after she qualified.

The old hospital building was knocked down in 2006 to make way for the University Hospital.

In her court statement, Dr Richmond described “frequently using underground tunnels in which there were pipes covered with lagging in poor condition and upon which maintenance men frequently worked without precautions to prevent dissemination of dust.”

It was claimed by her lawyers in the case that the old lagging on the pipes “is very likely to have contained amphibole asbestos, ie, amosite or crocidolite, and ceiling tiles during the relevant era commonly contained amosite”.

The law firm appealed in the media including the Coventry Observer for witnesses. It led to statements from more than 20 former members of staff.

A former labourer came forward to describe how ceiling tiles containing asbestos were moved about and damaged from maintenance work, and that no precautions were taken to prevent hospital staff being exposed to the potentially deadly dust from the tiles and in the ceiling voids.

In a Facebook post after the verdict, Dr Richmond, who thanked witnesses, wrote: “This exposure has caused my subsequent cancer… my family can relax knowing they will be provided for financially in my absence.

“Obviously I’d rather be well, have no financial settlement and be around to see my children grow up instead of having money in the bank but it is at least some comfort.”

Dan Easton, head of the industrial diseases team at Leigh Day, who represented Dr Richmond, said: “We would like to add our thanks to everyone who contacted us and enabled us to establish how Kate was exposed to asbestos.”

A UHCW NHS Trust spokesperson said: “The Trust would like to extend its heartfelt sympathies to Dr Richmond and her family at this difficult time.

“We believe there were stringent controls in place to manage asbestos at the old Walsgrave Hospital, which closed in 2006.

“After a thorough review with those directly involved at that time, UHCW felt the opportunity for any incidental exposure would have been very low.

“We are pleased that the settlement will enable Dr Richmond to meet her ongoing care needs and will provide security for her and her family into the future.”

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