CONSULTANT TREATMENT OUTCOMES

A recent initiative has been set up whereby patients can now check how their consultant is performing, as you can look at their results for a range of operations and treatments to help you make decisions about your care.

There are a number of specialities involved, although not all yet and it is hoped to roll out the scheme further.

You can use this data to decide which consultant to choose for your care.  

 
Unfortunately not all experts details are listed as some consultants have refused to let their results be published. 

All in all this has to be a good thing for patient choice.

DO YOU THINK THERE IS A COSY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND INSURERS?

This point was put to Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud in the House of Lords who denied there is a “cosy relationship between Government and the insurance industry” recently telling members of the House of Lords that he talks regularly to victims’ groups and lawyers.

The denial came after the Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds asked the Minister what part “sufferers themselves, their relatives and support groups will play in managing what sometimes comes over as an agreement and arrangement between Government and insurance agencies”.  Lord Wills, a former Justice Minister, asked the Minister if he recognised “the deep sense of injustice felt by so many that the insurers are refusing to pay 100% of all claims to all those who are entitled to them?” in a debate about the Mesothelioma Bill in the House of Lords. 

Of course the Prime Minister himself posted a cosy meeting with just insurance representatives in February 2012, inviting representatives from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Admiral, AXA, Aviva and Zurich Financial Services but no claimant lawyers group were present! 

Perhaps you should be the judge......

CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE EXPERTS

There has been a warning reported in the Law Society’s Gazette by leading clinical negligence lawyers of the risks arising from growing numbers of personal injury practitioners looking to carry out their work.

Legal Consultancy Zebra has reported a tenfold increase in enquiries about setting up or expanding medical negligence cases since the beginning of the year.  The majority of those contacts came from personal injury firms hit by cuts to fixed fees for RTA claims.

Clinical negligence solicitors say that cases in their sector require specialist knowledge and major investment to ensure they are handled correctly. 

Zoe Holland, Managing Director of Zebra Legal said: “the temptation for some firms is to consider placing their experienced personal injury solicitors into the role of clinical negligence risk assessor.  Unless the assessor has significant experience in this field, or has a medical background, this scenario is set to fail.”

David Jones, Senior Partner and Head of Clinical Negligence at Morgan Jones & Pett and a member of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel/APIL Accredited Clinical Negligence Specialist said “it is important clients are educated and know that the lawyer they are seeing is a specialist in this complicated field”.  Morgan Jones & Pett has joined SCIL (Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers) which now has more than 100 firms as members and is pressing for a quality mark to inform clients they are instructing a specialist.

It is obviously important to ensure that you look to instruct a specialist firm which Morgan Jones & Pett are, being consistently recommended in the Legal 500 and having Law Society Panel Members carrying out the clinical negligence work within the practice.