NHS Negligence Compensation
Working towards a better solution

In response to the huge burden the rising personal injury claims market has placed on the NHS, plans are now in place to allow the NHS to fight back by recouping it's medical costs from the insurance companies of those who caused the injuries in successful compensation payouts. So far this already covers road accidents but is slowly progessing into work related accidents also.

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.
Legal aid has all but been removed as an option for those seeking compensation for clinical negligence to being 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.

In a statement by the Tory health spokesman, John Baron said: "The annual cost to the NHS of clinical negligence has reached an unprecedented £446million a year ..." the rest of the statement being "... whilst the legal and administrative costs often exceed the money paid to the victim."

Surely a clear warning shot to law firms to clean house before the government was eventually forced to bring in heavy-handed legislation to counter the problem. Of course, the new legislation introduced in early 2007 only really tackles the problem of less-than-qualified people marketing towards potential claimants, there was nothing introduced to stop solicitors pushing forward the frivilous cases themselves. Hopefully though with a stand being made caution will creep in anyway.


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