Solicitors ripping off the NHS
Those solicitors are at it again. We have all lost count of the £millions of compensation that was meant for coal miners but ended up lining the pockets of our not so learned friends. If solicitors are not ripping of the miners, they are out chasing ambulances or grave robbing. Compensation for medical mishaps is big, big business and a lot of solicitors have jumped on the bandwagon.
Liverpool solicitors E. Rex Makin acted for some of the parents in the Alder Hey Organ scandal.
They slipped a bill into the NHS for £4,479,957.06
As NHS BLOG DOCTOR regular readers know, the best way to make a fortune out of health care is to sell things to the NHS. NHS purchasers meet most of the criteria for brain death and usually accept all estimates, however large. But this bill from E.Rex Makin was so large that even the NHS blinked and issued a challenge. They said they would take the matter to court for independent costing. E. Rex Makin hummed and hawed a little and then , according to the BBC, voluntarily agreed to reduce their bill. By £4,049,957.06.
Strewth!
For full details of this and other outrages interested taxpayers should listen to File on 4, BBC Radio 4 2000 BST, Tuesday 30 June 2009, repeated 1700, Sunday 5 July 2009.
Dr Crippen meanwhile is interested in the precision of the original bill. What advice will a solicitor give you for 6 pence?
Labels: brazen cheek, ripping of the NHS, ripping of the taxpayer, solicitors on the make
28 Comments:
Reminds me a little of the old joke:
What do you call 100 lawyers drowned at the bottom of the Ocean?
A good start.
Reminds me of the joke, did you hear about the solicitor who took viagra? He got taller.
Old joke about solicitor's bill:-
"To seeing you on the other side of the street, considering waving, but deciding no to: one guinea".
if the nhs wasnt so shit there wouldnt be so many court cases against it
and dont forget all the little people the nhs smashes by using the most expensive lawyers in the country against their tiny little small claims summons
the nhs plays the legal system like a dysfunctional evil empire, and deserves everything it gets
shut the fucking nhs down, thats the best way to stop the rot
shut the nhs down? that would be terrible! 1`d have to go back to my own country to find work. Furthermore i would not be able to bring over my relatives any more. So far, my sister in law has come to stay a few weeks with me the last 2 years and while she was here she went into labour both times and had the baby in an nhs hospital, My mum came over and stayed with me and we got a knee replacement out of the hospital and i am hoping to bring my dad over when he needs an angio. of course its harder if you are not the right colour........but you can still acheive it if you present a confident attitude. my mother in law has diabetes and need her leg amputated. she isnt from africa, she lives in florida: but we are bringing her over all the same because there is bound to be complications so its best if she is here as its all free!
have been successfully sued once. a no fault case but the unit was devoid of doctors when the patient had a complication. the advice was to pay off the complainant £10 000 because this would be cheaper than instructing lawyers. the sadness is that as a clinical assistant at the time this equated to 4 years part time dr salary. a joke. god bless the u s and a
Serious thought - with "no win no fee" conditional fee arrangements (and success fees), if the losing side has to pay a bill and can pretty well double - before you think abour disbursements including a normally large after the event (ATE) insurance premium (taken out to pay the O/Ss costs if you lose, recoverable against the O/S if you win).
There's a report going into costs at the minute - a further cost models are being considered including contingency fees. No longer is there the same front-loading of costs, but I remain to be convinced that things are actually cheaper in the long run nowadays.
PS - For 6p I would write "I would therefore advise ... " ;)
No one - great to have you back. How was the bile brewing conference?
No one, do you think the legal fees in the USA are lower or higher than in the UK?
Do you think the rate of negligence claims are lower or higher in the USA?
So is legal case rate anything to do with the so called crappy NHS? No, not really.
I forgot you don't get on well with empirical evidence...
Err.. "ripping OFF the NHS"?
Sorry, I'll get my coat
Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982...would love to see a Solicitor caught on that one !
Err.. "ripping OFF the NHS"?
Sorry, I'll get my coat
++++++
Gawd!!
Thanks
J
Fantastic post in your blog!
For what it's worth in my medical malpractice case the largest disbursments were to the doctors writing the medical reports - there wasn't much change from £6000 for the shortest report and we had 6 medics writing at least one report each...
Mark
Coming from a grossly overpaid GP it's a bit rich to criticize others payments.
At least Solicitors work late!
OT: a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression
Hopefully that will improve health for all on this, the government must give force to the health sector, as there are many people who suffer from chronic illnesses and who need help to cover expenses stronger as fibromyalgia, cancer, producing a series very heavy cost to those who suffer as they must take powerful drugs such as oxycodone, vicodin, Lortab, drugs that are highly controlled and that findrxonline indicate that opioids are very strong and anxiolytics do not know if that can be given life-threatening that consumes, that is why many times the costs are too high to be able to obtain and soothe the intense pain
Anonymous 8.28 a.m.
The 'out of hours' (profit based) PFI was a government initiative; GP's were encouraged to relinquish 24 hour community based care.
Dr Crippen,
I wonder on whose instructions those (presumably paid) at Alder Hey were acting ? It was reported that organs were taken from children without their parents knowledge or consent. There's little or anything which occurs in the NHS without 'box ticking' accountability to the meddling Labour government.
Mark,
Absolute rubbish - the 'party line' is to rubbish British doctors.
Off topic -
Hi John,
Thought you might like this
see from 07.30 onwards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lj87g/That_Mitchell_and_Webb_Look_Series_3_Episode_4/
Ann
Don't forget the consultants, that gov't hires to make things supposedly efficient. Heaven forbid you actually ask those who work in healthcare, for their opinion. They didn't take a how to be a consultant and charge extortionist fees and rob the citizenry blind course at a community college, so how would they know?
There would not be the need for so many eager lawyers if doctors/nurses etc. did not commit so much tortious damge on NHS patients. The standard needed to win is a tough one to meet and some of the cases show horrendous culpability.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0
It is true that a lot of money is spent on health information, but is also true that so far not found a cure for terrible diseases and quickly spread throughout the body, it calls on the authorities to have a better distribution of that money because it costs so far in vain, I have friends who suffer from cancer, HIV, Alzheimer's, and so far we can not find any solution to the disease, only control their pain medication, but until you take the same? actually be one day cure? please you have to be sensible and remember that nobody is free of disease and therefore it is important for everyone, it is important to reflect on the subject and provide information on www.findrxonline.com, website has good information that can help different people in many the world.
Thanks Anonymous for the link to the Mitchell and Webb on Utube. It would disappear of IPlayer soon.
Ann
At least Solicitors work late!
Yes and bill every hour to keep their partners in Mercedes !
Hopefully Tesco will start employing solicitors and get them on proper time-and-motion rates
where is Dr Crippen gone?
a) minibreak somewhere without internet access?
b) jail?
c) to hospital?
d) heaven?
e) hell? (does hell exist?)
or has he developed blog fatigue or is he at wimbledon?
Telegraph, Is the state guilty of child kidnap?
How did these people get sectioned?
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