For the first time ever, the NHS will be able to recover costs from insurance companies for treating patients in all cases where personal injury compensation is paid. Hospitals are already able to recover the costs of treating people injured in road traffic accidents (RTA) where they have successfully claimed compensation for their injuries.
NHS costs are payable by the insurer that pays the compensation. Five years after the RTA scheme came into operation it is recovering around £105million per year for the NHS. It is expected that the expanded ICR scheme will recover an additional £150million per year once fully bedded in.
Guild of Security UK Ltd Director, John Haywood, said:
"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 in protecting the health and safety of its workforce. However it is important that this is not just seen as another cost to be added to the employers 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. It is also important that this consultation is not seen as yet another Government ploy to claw back money through it's inadequate funding of the NHS.
We do have our concerns that, the next step will be for the NHS to claw back costs for injuries suffered at work by employees and thus, lead us onto the rocky road of each and every individual having to pay twice for their medical care or, worse still the demise of the NHS into a privately funded health service."
Health Minister, Rosie Winterton, said:
"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 £250m 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.
"The scheme will not introduce any more extra regulations for businesses and will be based on the current RTA scheme. The consultation will give all those with an interest in the scheme an opportunity to comment on the way it will work in practice when it comes into effect next year."
The draft Regulations follow on from the legislative framework for the ICR scheme set out in Part 3 of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 and are contained in the consultation document, "The Recovery of NHS Costs in All Cases Involving Personal Injury Compensation: a Consultation on the Draft Regulations". This consultation is concerned with explaining the Regulations that will govern the new scheme and is divided into three areas:
draft Personal Injuries (NHS Charges) (Amounts) Regulations (section 2 and annex A);
draft Personal Injuries (NHS Charges) (General) Regulations (section 3 and annex B);
draft Personal Injuries (NHS Charges) (Reviews and Appeals) Regulations (section 4 and annex C).
The Law Commission carried out a wide-ranging consultation on expanding the RTA scheme to cover all cases of personal injury where compensation is paid in 1996, arguing that it would force those responsible for causing injury to others to pay the full cost of their wrong-doing, rather than being subsidised by the general taxpayer.
Equally, it would encourage employers, public authorities and others with responsibility for the health and safety of others to take those responsibilities seriously and improve their health and safety practices. More than three quarters of the people who responded to the Law Commission’s 1996 consultation agreed with the Commission’s view that the NHS should be able to recover its costs from the liable party.
Notes for Editors and interested parties
1. Copies of the consultation document "The Recovery of NHS Costs in All Cases Involving Personal Injury Compensation: a Consultation on the Draft Regulations" can be found on the Department of Health website at http://www.dh.gov.uk/Consultations/fs/en
2. The consultation period will run from 24 September to 17 December 2004.
3. Department for Health media queries only should be directed to Ben Lewis at DH Media Centre on 020 7210 5229.