Frequent accidents

Ref/Sally Mandeir
After 5 accidents ? The employer is in default for neglecting his responsibility.
Ask some questions: Is the employee qualified in his trade ?
In what industry does this accidents occure ?
Did employee had any training ?
Do the employer comply with workplace safety ?
Are employees trained to do risk assesments ?
On return send the employee for medical evaluation for medical fitnes for his job
Inform him after return that an investigation is conducted into his ability and competence. If employee need training, provide training and evaluation.
If employee meets with an accident and or work reckless - keep a hearing and terminate his contract before the employer suffer financial loss, not only stand down time but by vertue of a claim for damages from a third party.
Juan Van Zyl

As suggested the first question is why ? If not related to training or compitence to complete whatever tasks his job entails then has anyone thought whether he is actually functional - fit for purpose ! i.e. is he physically fit enough with sufficient 'stamina' to work the whole day without fatigue driven errors and is his eyesight good enough not only to read health and safety instruction but not to suffer visual fatigue resulting in reduced capacity for sustaining hand-eye coordination where simple misjudgements as found in display screen users at the end of a long day on task may be accounting for "accidental injury" ?

Are we correct in assuming these are workplace accidents or are they attributable to whatever he does in his spare time? If they are workplace accidents RIDDOR definitely applies, but I wonder what matters your discussion will address. As Frank C. has pointed out you need to satisfy yourself that the guy is properly trained and his tasks properly risk assessed but it seems a bit late after 6 months and 3 crushed fingers to be quizzing the employee about his work.

You'd be better off waiting until he returns to work. As Frank says, return to work interviews are a good idea after any employee has a period of absence.
If you identify that he has had sufficient training then ask HR whether he has any registered disabilities. He may have a co-ordination problem linked in with dysphraxia, aspergers or similar.
Do you have a drug and alcohol policy in place? Do you do random drug testing?
If this is an abnormally high amount of accidents and the rest of your workforce do not have the same accidents and use the same machinery, once you've conducted a return to work interview, you may want to remind him of your policy (if in place) and ask to test him. If he runs a mile you know you've found your answer!

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Return to work interviews are highly recommended.
You need to identify whether or not this person has been suitably trained to do the job you are expecting him to do. If each of the occasions that he has had an accident have resulted in a robust accident investigation, this should give an indication as to why he continues to have accidents at work.
The majority of these accidents, if they have involved hospitalisation for more than 24 hours, are RIDDOR reportable. In this instance be prepared for a visit from your friendly inspector!
No, it's not the "blame game", deal only with facts at the intervioew and try to establish why he thinks his accident record is so poor.
Frank C

We have a young guy working for us who is 19 yrs old and has 5 accidents in the last 6 months. He has been to hospital 4 times out of the 5, with 2 of the accidents resulting in lost time. The latest one is for 4 weeks after he crushed 3 fingers.
Would we be within our rights to ask him in for a discussion about his work whilst he is off sick, or would it be better left until he returns to work?