DT News - UK - MDDUS chief criticises government over personal injury claims rate change

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 5 May 2017

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LONDON, UK: The CEO of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS), Chris Kenny, has criticised the government again over its decision to change the discount rate for personal injury claims. Speaking at the MDDUS-sponsored BMJ Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London this week, Kenny said doctors and dentists are among those who will have bear the significant consequences of the decision.

“The NHS faces enormous cost pressures because of the Lord Chancellor’s inexplicable decision to raise the discount rate for personal injury claims,” he said during the awards. “The Chancellor of the Exchequer has had to find an extra £6 billion over five years to fund it—cash that could be used far more creatively and to far greater impact elsewhere in the service.”

According to the MDDUS, the change could result in an increase in the size of compensation payments and as a consequence in new costs for the service and medical defence organisations like itself. Kenny said that legal action is still on the table if the next government should keep the rate at this level.

“This legally inept decision increases the incentives to put forward tendentious claims. It moves resources from care to lawyers’ pockets, resources that would be far better spent improving the quality of service to reduce the small number of justified claims still further,” he said.

Lord Chancellor Elizabeth Truss announced a cut to the discount rate applied to personal injury claims, from 2.50 to 0.75 per cent, in February with effect from 20 March. Professional organisations like the MDDUS and the British Dental Association have called on the government to introduce indemnity support schemes for both doctors and dentists to protect them from the additional costs resulting from higher compensation payments. They have also pressed for legislative action to produce a better system for setting the rate and to address the wider issue of tort reform.

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