Oliver Letwin, the Dorset West MP, in a speech to the Centre for
Policy Studies quoted figures of over £400million having already
been paid out in 2003 by the NHS in compensation for clinical
negligence claims with a further £5billion more in cases waiting
to be settled. This is a huge demand on the already thinning
resources our National Health Service relies upon.
Recently it has been suggested that legal aid be removed as an
option for those seeking compensation for clinical negligence to
be replaced by solicitor's no win, no fee arrangements. This
will place the burden of paying for fraudulent and
"time-wasting" claims on the shoulders of the solicitors
themselves who up till now have been receiving nearly 40% of the
total compensation costs the NHS is struggling to find.
More dramatic, though, is the recent draft produced by Health
Minister Rosie Winterton for a new, expanded NHS Injury Costs
Recovery (ICR) scheme. Meaning the NHS can recover the costs of
treating a patient who has made a successful compensation
claims.
For years hospitals have been able to recover the costs of
treating people injured in road traffic accidents where the
injured party has successfully claimed compensation for their
injuries. Within the past five years the NHS has recovered on
average around £105million per year from third party insurance
companies. The move to expand the current Injury Costs Recovery
scheme is estimated to recover an additional £150million per
year to cover the treatment of those who were injured due to
someone's negligence in any type of personal injury claim.
The Health Minister stated: "This policy will encourage
employers to take steps to prevent employees being injured and
when implemented should increase the total recouped each year to
around £250million for the NHS - equivalent to 53,000 hip
operations and 11,000 newly qualified nurses ... It is
unacceptable that taxpayers have to pay for the medical
treatment of someone injured at work simply because employers
fail to take adequate steps to protect their workforce.
Individual hospitals will now be able to recover the costs and
decide where they want to reinvest that money to improve
services they want."
In response to this a spokesperson for the Institute of
Directors said: "Businesses pay tax which pays for the NHS, so
why should it pay again for treatment? In road accidents it is
normally someone's fault but it is not so clear cut with
personal injury. It could mean that businesses are left fighting
costly and lengthy battles against claims. That may just be too
much for some, especially small businesses."
But despite these concerns TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber
stated: "We welcome this consultation. It is important that
negligent employers pay the full cost of their actions rather
than expecting the taxpayers to subsidise their failures to
protect workers. However it important that this is not just seen
as another cost to be added to insurance premiums and instead is
used by the insurance industry as an incentive to improve the
measures that employers take to prevent injuries at work."
The stiff regulations self-imposed on motor insurance policies
by insurance firms has always been lacking in other areas.
Whereas a motor insurance customer will have to declare age,
current employment, years holding a license, any previous
accidents, yearly mileage, motoring convictions, registration
number, type of license, other users of the car, any other cars
owned plus a multitude of other questions - public liability
insurances consist of much less confirmation. Hopefully this
move will be more of a wake-up call for insurance companies than
another reason for them to push up premiums. Sadly the The
Association of British Insurers are not convinced that insurance
firms will respond in the way hoped for by the Health Minister,
predicting the scheme would force insurance premiums up by 8%.
The Law Commission felt the move would encourage employers,
public authorities and others with responsibility for the health
and safety of others to take those responsibilities more
seriously and improve their health and safety practices. More
than 75% of those who responded to the Law Commission's
consultation on expanding the Road Traffic Accident scheme to
cover all cases of personal injury in 1996 agreed with the
Commission that the NHS should be able to recover its costs from
the insurance of the individual(s) responsible for the injuries
it had to treat.
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