Dialysis and hospital staff

Reg 7 of the Social Security (Disability Living Allowance) Regs deems someone with renal failure who is dialysing at least twice a week as meeting the day and/or night conditions for care component. 

However,under reg 7(2) (b) they are excluded if the dialysis is provided by the NHS and is also “assisted by or supervised” by a “member of the staff of the hospital or institution”.

At our local hospital (and I suspect others), the renal dialysis unit is staffed by nursing staff who are employed by a contractor to the NHS, which means that they are not employed by either the hospital (or even NHS).

Does anyone know of any caselaw on the mean of “staff”.  Is it limited to people employed by the hospital in question?

i would expect the agency staff to count as staff for this purpose….it’s the hospital which has control of the work etc.

The commentary to Reg 7 in Bonner points out that there is nothing in Reg 7 which prevents any assistance or supervision with respect to dialysis from being taken into consideration under the ‘ordinary’ DLA day and night conditions.